Gansler faces fire on judicial elections bill 

Posted: 6:48 pm Wed, March 17, 2010
By Steve Lash
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer

ANNAPOLIS — Several lawmakers Wednesday assailed a proposed constitutional amendment to end contested judicial elections in Maryland.

The legislators said that forcing trial judges to face the voters is fairer and less susceptible to corruption than the alternative: permitting the governor to have the unchallenged power to appoint the jurists from a slate of locally chosen candidates.

The constitutional amendment — Senate Bill 833 and House Bill 1385 — would remove the requirement that circuit court judges face a contested election within two years of their gubernatorial appointment and every 15 years thereafter.

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, who is spearheading the change, told the House Judiciary Committee that eliminating contested elections would remove the appearance that judges can be bought by campaign donors.

But some committee members said elections are conducted in the open while the appointment process is awash in behind-the-scenes politics. The names submitted for the governor’s consideration for appointment are often a select few who have won the support of local bar groups, they said.

The current appointment process gives “undue weight to the tug of local bar politics,” said Del. Luiz R.S. Simmons, D-Montgomery County. “I don’t think the public should be left out in the cold.”

Simmons suggested replacing the judicial nominating commissions in each county with a statewide panel that would include non-lawyers and people across the political spectrum. Such broad-based representation would eliminate the influence of a “Byzantine group” of local attorneys, he added.

While Gansler seemed open to changing the nominating commissions, he said ending contested elections of circuit-court judges is important because the funneling of money into judicial campaigns undermines public confidence in an independent judiciary and equal justice. In the last election cycle, $3.9 million was contributed in campaigns for the circuit court, Gansler said.

Judicial elections foment “a culture of who can raise the most money, who can bang on the most doors, they become judge,” Gansler told the House panel.

The amendment, if ratified, would require circuit court judges — the only Maryland jurists who must endure contested elections — to instead face an uncontested “retention” election every 10 years, as appellate judges do.

District court judges also serve 10-year terms but are confirmed and reaffirmed by the state Senate.

Joining Gansler in support of the proposed amendment were Court of Special Appeals Judge Alexander Wright Jr., Howard County Circuit Administrative Judge Diane O. Leasure, who chairs the Conference of Circuit Judges; and Baltimore City Circuit Administrative Judge Marcella A. Holland.

The judges said the need to raise money and run in contested elections leads the public to doubt their independence.

“We don’t make campaign promises,” Holland said, referring to a judge’s duty. “We are not in the political process.”

But Del. Kevin Kelly, D-Allegany, said eliminating elections will not take the corrupting influence of money out of the judicial selection process. To get a gubernatorial appointment, a would-be judge must devote funds to getting his or her name before the nominating commissions and to the governor — possibly by campaign donations to the commissioners or the governor, Kelly said.

“The money is on the front end” in the appointment process, Kelly added. “The process is somewhat corrupted.”

Del. Victor R. Ramirez, D-Prince George’s, noted the paucity of Hispanic judges under the current appointment system. Preserving contested elections might be the most effective way to change that imbalance, he said.

“Somebody might run because they’re not being appointed,” said Ramirez.

Defense attorney William “Billy” Murphy Jr., who was elected to the circuit court in 1980, called the appointment process “inside politics at its best.”

The appointment process has not served women well, Murphy testified. Although they comprise more than half of Maryland’s lawyers, women account for only 33 percent of the judgeships, he said.

“The day will come when women get tired” and run for the circuit court judgeships to which they have not been appointed, he said.