- Quickdraw McLaw
- 2020 General Election
- 4 Comments
- 152 Views
With ballots set to start arriving in mailboxes next week, it’s time to talk about the contested judicial races featured on that ballot. We welcome your comments on the qualifications of the candidates as well as any information you can offer to help voters make an educated decision. Just remember to keep your comments appropriate and try to avoid defamation.
For District Court Judge, Department 23, the candidates are:
- Armstrong, Karl W.
- Lilly-Spells, Jasmin
Who would have guessed that we would get rid of Judge Miley in Department 23 and end up with a replacement that is even worse than Judge Miley? Well it is 2020. So here we are, and this is what we are facing.
Judge Miley is still only in her late 40's, so this does not appear to be an age-related retirement, but would appear to be motivated out of a desire to avoid living through some adverse publicity and media.
Now, I could be wrong and it could be that she merely wants to move onto her next career challenge and she was not overly concerned about a bruising campaign.
But it does seem that when these judges decide to not run for re-election(and then essentially retire from the bench) and that decision comes well before the judge turns 60, it seems there is always some elephant in the room–e.g. some really adverse past media publicity that will be revived if there is a contested campaign, sometimes some real low RJ retention scores, attorneys recruiting a strong opponent in the event the judge decides to run for re-election, etc.).
So, she may have decided that it is not good for her and her family if all that past media coverage is revived.
But if she is thick-skinned enough to endure such a campaign(and she does seem pretty tough and resilient), she would probably have been re-elected, and perhaps with relative ease.
As a judge, I never thought of her as one of the worst. Solidly average in my view, but many others don't share my opinion.
Miley isn't the greatest, but she was always ok and never screwed me over on anything. I cannot believe that an open seat would not have attracted higher profile candidates than this. I have no idea how I'm going to vote here.
If Karl Armstrong is with the judicial discipline we do nothing, then God no, I am not voting for him.