In Tallahassee, a race for country judge is already generating an elections commission complaint and anonymous dumps of opposition research.
In rural Jasper, a judge faces suspension for running as an anti-abortion conservative. They’re just the latest examples of the pitfalls of Cannon 7, the guidelines that say judicial races should be plain vanilla.
Not long after the yard signs for a Tallahassee county judge race sprouted like dandelions, a confidential elections commission complaint, and an opposition research report, landed anonymously in local newsrooms.
It would be typical mudslinging in any other campaign. But in a judicial race, it appeared to push the boundaries of ethics laws designed to protect the impartiality of the courts.
Chief Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom (Shaw-strum,) warned judicial candidates at a recent workshop on Cannon 7 to treat their opponents like colleagues.
“What stuck in my mind from when I was in your seat, was, a judge telling me that you have to respect the cannons enough to lose an election. That’s really sort of the point I want to make with you. Our authority begins with your willingness to accept those constraints.”
The confidential elections complaint in the Tallahassee county judge race is filed against candidate Monique Richardson. It quibbles with the “paid-for-by” disclosure language she uses in her ads.
The mysterious opposition research file takes issue with a portion of Richardson’s resume dating back to 1989. It if was designed to cause a media stir, it failed. Richardson declined to be interviewed for the story.
Richardson was at the Cannon 7 workshop, where Florida Bar board of governor’s expert Bill Davis warned candidates not to let their campaign managers go too far.
“You need to raise their consciousness that this is not one of those down-and-dirty kind of campaigns that they might have seen going on somewhere for some other kind of office.”
Richardson’s opponent, Leon County Judge Layne Smith, was also at the workshop. He denies having anything to do with the anonymous file.
Smith says he knows the attorney who filed the elections complaint against Richardson, but Smith says he did not urge him to file it. While he says he doesn’t want to criticize Richradson, he says she should know better.
“If somebody says, I’m not doing it right, or anybody else is not doing it right. If you’re running for judge you ought to get it right. So, nobody wants to be in a position where, if you’re running for judge, you’re not going to follow the law yourself.”
Smith was appointed by Governor Rick Scott two years ago when his predecessor was forced off the bench for violating judicial ethics.
Before he became a judge, Smith was general counsel for the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation and also worked for the Florida Lottery. He says Cannon 7 still gives candidates enough leeway to tout their experience, but not much else.
“They want you to be a politician from the standpoint that you have a contested race. It’s not a yes-no vote. It’s not a plebiscite. Yet there are so many things that you can’t do that any other candidate could do.”
For example, Smith says, other candidates can ask supporters directly for money.
But not all of Smith’s colleagues in robes are as cautious. The Judicial Qualifications Commission is recommending a Lafayette County circuit judge be suspended for three months without pay for 90 days. Commissioners say Decker touted his anti-abortion conservatism on the campaign trail.
