Litigation

Election 2010: ?Half-Truths Fly? in NV Ads

By Peter Hardin

“Half-truths are the name of the game for the next month” as judicial election TV advertising ramps up in Nevada and attacks fly, warns Jane Ann Morrison in a column for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In one example Morrison cites the case of a Justice Court candidate, Kristine Kuzemka, whose ads accuse rival William “Bill” Kephart of once facing  “potential sanctions” from the Nevada Supreme Court. “‘He even choked a witness on the stand.’”

The whole truth? Morrison reports that Kephart “was not sanctioned by the court. He did choke a witness on the stand … as a demonstration … and yes, the Nevada Supreme Court objected saying he shouldn’t have used the defendant, he should have used someone else. None of that is explained, of course.”

In a separate column, Morrison reports that 11 judicial candidates who held a group fundraiser got into trouble with the Standing Committee for Judicial Ethics and Election Practices. In a separate complaint, a judicial candidate has contended that event created a “slush fund” for his rival.

The bottom line? Morrison says she favors a reform measure (see Gavel Grab) facing Nevada voters in November:

“Would-be judges are questioning their opponents’ truthfulness, even their grasp of the law, throwing out terms like slush fund and money laundering.

“For me, it’s another reason to support a merit selection system of picking judges.”

In dispatches from other judicial elections:

• Georgia Supreme Court candidate Matt Wilson used a TV debate to accuse incumbent Justice David Nahmias of being “soft on crime,” for the way he handled gun charges against rapper T.I. as a federal prosecutor. The justice called the charge “ridiculous,” an Associated Press article reported.
• In the Colorado Springs Gazette, Barry Noreen writes a commentary about a blogger’s campaign to oust three state Supreme Court justices, headlined, “Rabid anti-judiciary fervor has little basis.”
• Press Millen, a trial lawyer, pens a commentary in the Charlotte News & Observer criticizing the “unedifying spectacle” of North Carolina voters choosing judges, and he urges judicial selection reform.
• For a Toledo Blade profile of state Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Brown, click here, and the Blade’s profile of his challenger, Justice Maureen O’Connor, click here.

Full post as published by The Gavel on October 11, 2010 (boomark / email).