By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist
The petition-happy citizens who subjected goofy adult Halloween costumes and the local Planned Parenthood clinic to grand jury scrutiny in Johnson County have a new mission.
Thanks to their signature-collecting prowess, the county’s voters will decide in November whether to change the way judges are seated.
Currently, judicial candidates are screened by a nominating commission. The Kansas governor makes the final selection. Judges periodically stand for retention elections, without opponents.
A statewide group with a Johnson County chapter thinks the process discriminates against judges with a conservative bent. They want voters to select members of the bench in partisan elections.
My advice to Johnson Countians: Look north.
Wyandotte County is one of 14 judicial districts in Kansas that elects its judges. This year, two incumbents are facing challenges in the Democratic primary on Aug. 5. The race that has everybody talking is in the 29th Judicial District, where lawyer Reginald Davis is campaigning vigorously to unseat Judge Daniel Cahill.
Davis, 45, is a man on a mission.
“I want to right wrongs,” he told me. “I want to make sure that truth, justice and equality are restored in this county.”
In Davis’s view, the Wyandotte County bench,
though elected, is clubby and out of touch. Interestingly, conservatives have the same criticism about the appointed judges in Johnson County.
Davis has rounded up significant support from neighborhood leaders and some ministers and politicians. He campaigns door to door.
Political handicappers give him a shot at defeating Cahill on Aug. 5. With no Republican candidate in the race, a primary victory would make Davis a judge.
But Davis brought baggage to the campaign — a bankruptcy filing, a dispute with a woman that resulted in both she and Davis being served with restraining orders, and a reprimand from a judge in a contempt hearing.
As a candidate, he rapidly came to the attention of the Kansas Commission on Judicial Qualifications, which ordered Davis to stop personally soliciting campaign funds, in violation of the Kansas standards on conduct for lawyers.
Davis is featured on a YouTube video asking a crowd to support him financially. And he sent text messages to lawyers.
“If you are truly my friend then you would cut a check to the campaign!” the message stated. “If you do not then its time I checked you. Either you are with me or against me!”
When we talked, Davis accused journalists who reported on the commission’s cease-and-desist order of being “misleading, deceitful and deceptive.”
“It’s being portrayed as though I committed some crime,” he said. “The only thing I did was break a judicial canon of conduct.”
Davis doesn’t get it. He is running to be a judge, which is all about knowing the law, following the rules and being above reproach.
This election marks the second time Davis and Cahill have contended for the 29th District judge’s seat. Both applied to fill a vacancy left by a retiring judge last year.
Kansas law calls for the governor to appoint judges to fill unexpired terms. The system worked as it does in Johnson County and the 17 other judicial districts in Kansas that use a nonpartisan system to nominate and seat judges.
A commission of lawyers and community members screened candidates and recommended a panel of three to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
She chose Cahill, 41, a former assistant county prosecutor with a wealth of courtroom experience, an unblemished reputation and extensive background in law involving children.
Davis, a former city prosecutor with less legal experience than Cahill, didn’t make the panel of three.
The nominating and appointment process produced a good judge for Wyandotte County. At best, the election process will produce the same result, just with more drama.
At worst, the election will end with a new judge who is careless about following rules and is viewed with consternation by the legal profession.
The message to Johnson County? Stick with the nominating and appointment method. It’s time-tested and it works.
Barbara Shelly is a member of the editorial board. She can be contacted at 816-234-4594 or at .
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PS
If The Star and Babs are against Davis, where can I get his yard signs?
As usual
Shelley and The Star are simply handmaidens to corruption. The last time they endorsed a WYCO judge the issue in the election was the multiple credible allegations of their endorsee being drunk on the bench.
As for Johnson County, their system has produced a record number of political hacks under the guise of "merit". For instance, in 2004 the "merit" system produced not one, but two former shysters from Dennis Moore's old law firm (that apparently being the source of their merit).
One (Moriarty)recently disgraced his office by conducting a sham grand jury proceeding in which he appointed a couple of ringers to "represent" the grand jury. As one might predict, they protected their ideological pals at PP and then Moriarty buried the proceedings beneath a judicial cover-up.
The other was Sloan, another whiz bang from Moore's firm, a woman more suited to a retirement community for ex Hooters waitresses than the bench.
In its latest contribution to comedic farce this same committee picked 3 Democrats from which the largest contributor to Kathleen Sebelius was picked for the bench.
However, one can understand why a left-wing kook like Shelley would like that corrupt system since it has packed the bench in conservative Johnson County with an amazing collection of left-wing white trash.