- law dawg
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Next year is a judicial election year and every seat on the bench in Eighth Judicial District Court (plus two seats on the Supreme Court and several in various justice courts and the municipalities) will be up for election. Candidate filing is from January 5-16, 2026. You can get the 2026 Judicial Candidate Filing Guide for Clark County here. Considering that, we thought it might be worthwhile to have a post dedicated to the topic to discuss the ins and outs of running for judge. Who should run? What does it take to run? How much money is needed? Do you have to fundraise? Is is absolutely necessary to hire a campaign consultant? Is it true that women have an advantage? Does political party matter? How do you balance campaigning with work? What other ethical considerations are there? What advice do you have for someone thinking about running? If you ran before, what do you wish someone had told you?
Ah, yesterday dawned with such celestial brightness that it might have graced the opening chapter of a more fortunate age. The sun, in all its beneficence, smiled upon me as I took my accustomed exercise upon the verdant links, the air as temperate and obliging as a kindly magistrate. Yet alas! Upon my return to chambers at dawn today, my spirits, lately so elevated, were dashed upon the hard stones of fiscal reality. For there, in the very heart of industry, I discovered that my paralegal, Bob, a man I had believed sound of character, had, in one reckless day, consumed twice our customary ration of coal whilst working yesterday! Twice, I say! And this from one to whom I had extended the generous boon of choosing, at his leisure, between the enjoyment of Family Day or Armistice Day! Oh, the ingratitude of mankind! It chills the heart more effectively than any draft through the office windows he so eagerly heats.
So, you saying don’t run for judge?
Since Bob was not a war hero, Bob should have been at work rather than enjoying a day to explore mattress sales and early Black Friday specials.
This is the funniest comment I’ve ever seen on the blog.
Way to go State Bar. On 11/12 you send me an email to sign up for CLE with a registration deadline in August for a CLE on succession planning and how to wind up a law firm by an attorney never had to wind up a law firm in private practice.
as to the topic at hand, it is way more political than most of us realize. If you want to be a serious candidate that is going to get endorsements you have to have money and a fundraising plan. How will you advertise because they want to know that too. Endorsement go to people who they think will win. You will probably have to bend the knee somewhere in this process if you want to make it. There are exceptions. every once in awhile someone beats the odds, but that is not usually the case.
Males need not apply
There are 58 seats on the 8th JD bench and only 15 of them are male: 7 of the 32 judges in regular court and 8 of the 26 judges in family court. So almost a quarter are male. According to the Bar’s 2022 demographics survey (https://nvbar.org/member-demographics/) the state bar of nearly 12,000 attorneys is 69% male, 35% female, and 1% other.
So you’re telling me there’s a chance…
Agreed. Males cannot win a judicial race in the current client, especially in that hellhole called Family Court. Maybe Robert Kurth will win next year. I like the guy.
How in the world do Phil Aurbach, Terry Coffing, Mark Bailus and Trevor Atkin lose seats but Ron Israel continues to coast?
People like a watching a miserable person be miserable lol
I am not so certain that you are wrong that a certain contingent loves chaos
I have followed a few judges and judicial candidates on social media over the years. I could never do it. Every friggin day you have to show up to some banquet or “gala,” pretending that you care about and like these people, and then sit around eating the rubber chicken and listening to them congratulate each other and give one another awards. Then you have to post on social media about what a great time you had and how this was the highlight of your week. No thank you. I would rather run for Student Council.
What if the gala featured BBQ? Pulled pork, ribs, baked beans, corn on the cob, greens, sausages, and hushpuppies? Still a no?
Doing all that on top of my duties as an attorney and parent seems awful, but there are certain personality types that do really enjoy the rubber chicken dinners and glad handing. This is especially true for people later in their career who may not have kids at home anymore (or never had kids). I don’t begrudge them simply because it seems awful to me personally.
You are considering this thinking you would have an equally demanding job as you have now. When you are a judge, lets just say you don’t have that many demands on your time. At least if you do it like many of our judges do
This!!!
How much are we talking about needing to raise? Is this a $500K – $750K thing?
I’d say you’re gonna need about tree-fiddy.
I seriously hate that judges are also politicians here in our state. They all say they are neutral, but you never forget those who contributed large sums of money and campaigned for you to be on the bench.
And after they win they show up at your firm with their hands out asking attorneys that will appear before them to help “retire the debt.” It’s disgusting.
https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/las-vegas-police-public-integrity-task-force-investigates-henderson-councilwoman/ quite the investigation
Does Cox sound like a whack job? Of course. But think about this in terms of the allegedly private conversation. “Metro investigators then reviewed non-audible video surveillance from three camera angles of the same incident at Henderson City Hall and watched as Cox appeared to make a phone call, holding the phone to her ear before walking past the curtain and engaging with Larson, documents said.”
So “private” that its in a public building by a public official for an official event that is captured on not less than three different public video cameras. Sounds about as private as a game at Allegiant Stadium.
Oh I did not read far enough into why the LVMPD interest “On several occasions, Metro investigators found texts in which Cox allegedly disregarded lawful, procedural, and ethical standards while sharing police details with reporters.” Cross the Blue; we will come for you.
The full report is great. Running an unlicensed day care facility and (likely) not paying taxes on the $200k in annual income. Leaking confidential info to reporters, using a public office to influence a nursing board disciplinary proceeding, taking pictures of other councilmembers to insinuate marital misconduct to distribute to members of the church that both belong to, and personally interfering with a city employee’s career advancement. Things are getting spicy in hendertucky.
Anyone willing to do the work. The caseloads especially for the junior judges is crushing. The more seniors ones and homicide judges, not so much. They carry maybe 400 civil cases compared to 600 for split dockets judges and 600-1000 for all civil judges (again, junior judges are at the higher range and seniors at the lower end). There are a lot of clicks and a lot of awful personalities (which might be the worst part of the job); you need at least 300,000 (yes, there have been exceptions but that’s a safe estimate); yes you need a manager and if you don’t have one you’d better have a lot of hustle and know a lot of people to find out about events and merchandise and placing tv and radio and other ads; you need to be everywhere all the time (proxies are disfavored for judicial positions); yes you have to fundraise; there is no balance.
You have to get the major endorsements.
This is generally speaking. In 2020, there were several upsets. One candidate raised no money, others won by virtue of being a female and having a solid name. Setting aside these outliers, being a female (attractive ones have an even bigger leg up) and having lots of money and endorsements means you have a huge head start.
Remember there are people sitting in the bench who have never had an opponent (10). They don’t know how to campaign. And there are others on the bench who have actually run a campaign and lost and went on to get an appointment (7). Several other examples. These people, along with any males, are the low hanging fruit.
It’s a non partisan position so you pander to all parties.
If you’re considering running, check your gender, fundraising skills, willingness to go to campaign event sometimes 7 days a week and multiple events in a day and all over Clark County, how likely are you to get endorsements, and if you’re considering running against an incumbent, check financial discourse to see how much money raised in how long or short a time and how much money they have left over from their last election. Then call Tom.
“attractive ones have an even bigger leg up”
There is a lewd joke in there somewhere
Emphasis on the last sentence
Review Journal’s Judging the Judges will be another good resource to see who is the low hanging fruit. Love it or hate it, RJ reaches a lot of people and if a judge is on the bottom end, they’re immediately vulnerable in the eyes of the voters.
Judging the Judges is totally unfair to Ronald Israel. That dedicated jurist holds attorneys accountable, and the thanks he gets is a low rating! The injustice!
Does anyone know when the Judging the Judges survey is coming out?
Before the end of this month.