judgesonmerit.org

It’s not a judicial election year in Pennsylvania, but many other states are electing judges this fall.  Two stories from Minnesota illustrate some of the problems inherent in electing judges.

We’ve long pointed out that judicial elections often turn on random factors like ballot position, name recognition and fundraising ability rather than demonstrated skill, qualifications and experience.  A long-serving local judge in Minnesota is facing his first challenger in years.  The incumbent’s campaign co-chair reports that:

[The challenger] has done almost nothing since filing for the race. He has not established a campaign committee nor has he responded to requests for information from the Minnesota State Bar Association, Minnesota Lawyer or the StarTribune. As far as can be determined, Mr. Link is a real estate lawyer with no significant courtroom experience. It has been reported that he chose to run against Judge Bush solely because of the incumbent judge’s “politically unpopular” last name.

In addition to the name recognition game, judicial campaigns continue to grow more and more like other campaigns for public office.  Legal Blog Watch reports that two candidates for the Minnesota Supreme Court have taken their campaigns to Facebook. Mark Cohen of Minnesota Lawyer Blog has commented, “While campaigns run in the virtual world are all well and good, I would like to see a real-world debate between [the candidates].”

We understand that when a state elects its judges, candidates have to be creative in raising funds and running campaigns.  But we think these types of campaigns don’t do much to ensure that the most qualified, skilled and experienced candidates reach the bench.