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The Ugly Business of Becoming a Judge in California
My sister, Mary Ann Escalante.
Full disclosure: I’m about to write a post that criticizes a candidate running for election against my sister on June 5 in Los Angeles. So … you get it. I’m biased. My sister has probably already won this race, and this post wont move the dial in LA county at all, but it’s fascinating. The race gives a snapshot of the political climate in California and how lost this state is.
My sister Mary Ann Escalante is running for LA Superior Court Judge. She knew it was a messy business before she started because she’s been a hardcore gang prosecutor for years, 30 years total as a deputy DA. But she didn’t know the extent of the one-party system here in California until she went to hire the obligatory “consultant” to guide her through the myriad corrupt hoops on her way to the bench.
The most coveted consultant said he would not take her on unless she switched parties and told people she was now a Democrat because in LA County “only a Democrat can win,” which is the conventional wisdom.
She said, “of course, I will not do that,” and instantly became an outsider grassroots candidate with 30 years of experience and a “well qualified” rating from the County Bar (the highest in her race).
Then there is her opponent, Wendy Segall, a lifelong conservative, who didn’t think twice about leaving her party to win. So she is no longer the activist Republican she used to be and became a member of the Democratic Party on January 9, 2018, to scoop up all the endorsements and funding that comes with being a Democrat in this state.
As I said, we’re not too worried. Segall’s hollow presentation of herself as a candidate has led to a predictable lack of support and an actual courtroom scandal didn’t help her either. (She called it a “lapse in judgment.”)
The worst part about this is the Judge race is non-partisan. So no one should consider what party you belong to. But here in California, the non-partisan is now partisan, and the partisan is now hyper-political and fanatical. God help us.
Published in Politics
In 2012 I ran for Superior Court in Coconino County. 30% of my county is Native, so I stopped wearing cloth ties and went to lots of Chapter House meetings. (I have worn bolo ties ever since then.)
Judicial elections are supposed to be non-partistan, with the party identification not appearing on the ballot.
But I came across a very nice Native lady who was handing out cards which listed all of the Democratic candidates, including my opponent, and the Democratic positions on the ballot proposals. It was what it was. I laughed.
I tried to engage voters, giving them my card. And this nice lady would speak in Navajo to traditional voters and when she looked and pointed at me, she said “Republican.”
There really wasn’t anything I could do about it, so I went to a different precinct to engage voters.
I think that in urban counties, Judges should go through “merit selection” where they must appeal to their peers. Both my opponent and I were not the best candidates in the county, and running for election was too awkward for my lawyers.
We have a good judge who couldn’t win as a Republican, but won when he became a Democrat. He is a DINO, or “Democrat in Name Only.”
However, the problem with merit selection is the retention process where people can vote on “Should Judge X be retained?” In the last 40+ years, only one appellate and one trial judge were not retained for an effective retention rate of 99.5% for appellate judges, and 99.9% for trial judges. If I had it my way, I would bump the required positive vote to two-thirds.
Good luck to your sister.
Unrelated to this (Good luck to your sister, though, and I hope she wins), it’s cool to have you writing here again.
Best of luck to your sister. She’ll have my vote.
Best of luck to your sister, Mary Ann. I will definitely vote for her.
I wish her all the best in her election. Living in Arizona I’m not eligible to vote for her, but as a former street cop if I was eligible to vote for her she would certainly get my vote.
Finally I know who to vote for on the superior court; just marked my sample ballot.
If only she had switched to Democrat… then I’m sure there’d be a way for all of us out of state people to vote for her
“Sister Mary Ann Escalante”
Maybe I’m too old and yet juvenile, but my brain keeps seeing “Sister Mary Elephant.”
I disagree. All political races should be partisan, be it President, school board, or dog catcher. As a voter, I demand to know if a potential candidate is a member of a political party, and which one. This gives me, in spite of specific stands on issues, a general idea of how the person will act in office.
Other than that, I wish the best for Sis, but she’s in the wrong state. Tell her to move here to South Carolina, where the odds are much better . . .
I couldn’t agree more. We were just able to vote out an incumbent judge during the primary season. And the county political establishment was behind him. Truly democracy at work.
Like Stad, I think a judge’s preferred party is relevant because it speaks to values. It shouldn’t regard judicial philosophy or respect for rule of law, but it does. Not all Democrats are the same. But it is safe to assume one believes that ends justify means, legal precedents are mere recommendations, and individuals belonging to favored political groups deserve special treatment.
Not that Republicans have been so reliable and lawful. Comparatively, they are saints.
There used to be a time when we could trust Democrat judges to rule using only the law. Those times have passed. Maybe it’s high time we change the Constitution to get rid of lifetime appointments, or lower the threshold for impeachment a tad . . .
My sister, one of the original members of NOW and a highly active political partisan who has never voted for a Republican in her life, was in the near past, on some kind of political board for the Democrat party in SOCal. They analyzed the “qualifications” of folks in order to endorse them for judgeships. Knowing her political bent caused me to cringe every time I thought about her choosing people for judgeships. I am thankful that I do not live in LA.
That hurdle is a political one, not a legal one. Few Republicans have the will to do what is within their authority.
In government, always and everywhere, power precedes authority. Authority not exercised is authority lost. The less frequently politicians exercise checks and balances, the more ephemeral the concept becomes and the higher the costs for reasserting it.
There are no checks and balances any longer. The three branches do not form checks and balances, they form a cabal. The cabal increases federal power and power sharing by the two parties.
The cure is not more impeachments. That just rearranges the musical chairs and leaves the game in place. What we need is for the states to reassert their position by claiming the power to declare a law unconstitutional for violating the 9th and 10th Amendments.
Plus one big problem is that in the “big election” held every four years, people have no idea they will be voting on judges. In a state like Calif, there are long lists of names, and voters choose a name and hope for the best.
When I did election integrity work, I would be posted to sit at a table a bit more than 500 feet from the polling place, with handouts copied from the voter info booklets. Some people asked for them so they could find out which people were running for President or Senator!
So as far as judges, you can imagine the lack of ability in this type of voter’s decision making process once they went inside the voting booth.
On edit: This all happened in Sausalito Calif, one of the most “white bread” areas in the country, with average per capita wealth far above the norm. Often those voters who had no idea of who was running for any single position were wearing designer clothing. I am sure they thought that just showing up to check some boxes on a piece of paper shows how very civically minded they happened to be.
I completely agree. There is no such thing as a non-partisan politician, and it does the voters a great disservice to keep them from knowing party affiliation. In Seattle all municipal elections are so-called “non partisan” and is the primary reason we’ve become a city ruled by crazy lefties who sanctimoniously refer to themselves as non partisan.
Thanks Gary!
Me too.
Judges are always our most challenging votes due to the lack of information.
That, and the choices left after our “jungle primaries” here in California, which tend to be left vs. farther left.
Heading off to vote this morning, including for Ms. Escalante. Just a quick reminder for any of you who live in the jurisdiction and are following this post.
In theory your idea is fabulous. But how many times has some official declared themselves to be “R” or “D” and really been the opposite? Di Feinstein is someone who never fulfilled a single pledge to Democrat voters that she offered, as she is not a Democrat. She even made sure that Schwartzennegger was elected twice.
Putting aside the fact that Ahnold would have been a fabulous governor if Obama/Geithner hadn’t ensured the state stayed broke until Jerry Brown, a “D” got in, how is it that a “D” Senator was able to do this and get away with this? The fact that she and Richard Blum, her husband, were best friends with the George Schultzes should have tipped people off back in the 1980’s.
When Peter Byrne, a very decent reporter, got the dirt on Di Fi, no media in the SF Bay area would publish it. So finally “The Bohemian,” this little weekly paper distributed in the Santa Rosa area ran with his serialized article relating to big wig corruption.
While currently Trump is being assailed for running this nation with Putin’s help, in reality Di Fi has committed some major crimes. Including leaking info she gleaned from her top position inside various committees in the US Senate. When a person is able to leak confidential war time info to their spouse for the purpose of the spouse advancing the profitability of their construction firm, the Mainstream Media remains mum, and everyone looks the other way, you realize how much trouble this nation is in.