Scaring voters about a Judge Phill Kline

Political observers are unsure of the prospects of the Nov. 4 ballot initiative on whether Johnson County District Court judges should be elected rather than appointed. To demonstrate the dangers of partisan election of judges, defenders of the status quo in Johnson County have erected a billboard saying, “Keep Phill Kline Off Our Court.” But such a future for the controversial Kline seems unlikely, given that he was clobbered by Johnson County voters in the 2006 attorney general’s race and then in August’s GOP primary for district attorney. Voters have long picked judges in Sedgwick County and about half of the state.

9 Comments

  1. JWink
    Posted October 24, 2008 at 6:15 am | Permalink

    How about putting election of judges on the non-partisan April election ballot. In Wichita, the April elections are generally used to elect city council people and school board members.

    Non-partisan elections don’t necessarily rule out partisan politics but it does prohibit putting party designations on the ballot. Also the primary election in February would determine the two highest vote getters. These two winners in each race would then compete in the April general election.

    This might reduce power of political parties in judge elections. This idea is not original with me but has been suggested previously by other bloggers. Any thoughts?

  2. sunflower5
    Posted October 24, 2008 at 7:10 am | Permalink

    Johnson County does not trust the people to make decisions.

    Electing judges brings some accountablity to the bench.

  3. Jed
    Posted October 24, 2008 at 7:57 am | Permalink

    Texas is a good example of what can happen when judges are elected. Lawyers are expected to contribute to judges’ campaign funds, and lawyers who contributed more to the judge presiding over their case are likely to win cases over lawyers who contributed less. A nice way to raise campaign chests, but it leaves justice completely out in the cold.

  4. TomPaine
    Posted October 24, 2008 at 10:28 am | Permalink

    I think Phil Kline would be a Magnet for controversy whether the election were Partisan or not.

  5. bth
    Posted October 24, 2008 at 10:30 am | Permalink

    Problem with that JWink – what if that election is not active throughout the County?

  6. mrcontroversy
    Posted October 24, 2008 at 12:15 pm | Permalink

    “Voters have long picked judges in Sedgwick County and about half of the state.”
    …and the other half has more horse sense.

  7. DavosRancheros
    Posted October 24, 2008 at 4:11 pm | Permalink

    Phil Kline is a freak…

  8. JWink
    Posted October 25, 2008 at 4:51 pm | Permalink

    bth: The fact there might not be a need for non-partisan APRIL elections throughout Sedgwick County every two years, admittedly, is an unforeseen difficulty with my idea. The idea I suggested above is to elect our county district judges in the non-partisan April elections to avoid political affiliation to some degree.

    I want to add that this idea was not original with me. Someone on the WE blog suggested it recently.

    I would have to consult with our Sedgwick County elections guru, Mr. Bill Gale, who is probably spinning around circles right now coordinating advance voting. Incidentally I did vote in advance yesterday, Friday afternoon, in the election commissioners offices.

    Of course, this idea might be worth the expenditure to hold April elections throughout Sedgwick County every two or four years.

    Must be a few attorneys on this blog who would comment.

    I did discuss this idea with Mr. Controversy yesterday in his offices and he still favors a system of selecting a list of judges by a panel of lawyers and non-lawyers (with one more non-lawyer on the panel) and then giving the final appointment to the Governor.

    Another diffugalty is in some areas in western Kansas, judges do not necessarily have to be lawyers. Don’t know what level of judges this applies to. Seems to me these are “substitute” judges who go by a slightly different title.

  9. Jed
    Posted October 28, 2008 at 1:52 am | Permalink

    Wink,
    Here’s an old song for those non-lawyer judges;

    John Martin Hardy was judge of the court
    In a small town way out in the west.
    He knew nothin’ at all of the rule of the law,
    But as judge he was one of the best.

    One day in the winter a murder occurred,
    The blacksmith accused of the crime.
    We cought him red-handed and gave him three trials
    But the jury said guilty each time.

    Now he was the only good blacksmith we had,
    And we wanted to spare him his life.
    Judge Hardy stood up in the court like a lord
    And with these words he settled the strife.
    “We’ve two Chinese laudrymen everyone knows,
    So let’s save the poor blacksmith and hang one of those!”