Miscellaneous

Judicial Selection in Ohio: More Fun Than American Idol!

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Next up at the town hall meeting on judicial independence was magistrate Kathy King. Her tale of running for office (particularly the party nomination part) struck fear into all hearts present.

Although Ohio's judicial elections are supposedly nonpartisan, the parties are involved in choosing nominees. No party affiliation is listed on the ballot, but that's about the extent of nonpartisanship.

What do parties require of their nominees? Democrats want six years of practice (as an attorney, silly).

Republicans are another story. Unfortunately for King, this is her party. She can cry if she wants to, cry if she wants to! She probably did, too, given the circumstances: Republicans chose their nominees by committee. (Insert "death by committee" quip here.)

What, she asked us, are the qualifications to run for judicial office? Some ideas circulating the room (and my own head):

• A J.D. plus bar membership (pretty standard, unless you're a justice of the peace out west)


• Solid experience in the prosecutor's office (relax, some of my favorite people are prosecutors!)


• Service to the party


• We'll play the gender card (though let's be clear that King did *not*) and say that being male can't hurt your chances

One political science professor in the group summed up the judiciary: "It's a retirement plan for public officials."

My notes started with an equation. I can't recall if it was a direct quote but it gets to the heart of King's point: "greed = $ = downfall of civ!" That, and your favorite Idol contestant not winning! (Then again, can 12 million -- and that's just the margin, we're too lazy to do the real math -- voters be wrong?)

Note: Yes, we are fixed!!! Thanks to the geniuses (and the subgeniuses, too, one can hardly tell them apart!) at the mac store. Fun fact: when they say "3-5 days, but we have to say that," they're being straight-up with you. Mine was fixed in about 12 hours! Gotta love the hardworking elves. The broken-laptop nightmare is over!

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on May 21, 2008 (boomark / email).