Endorsements for Los Angeles Judicial Offices
Fellow 29th/21st/44th District mostly-doctrinaire lefty Hugo Schwyzer has posted his ballot, for all but the judicial slate. We agree on everything except the things we disagree on, but it looks like my ballot has ten more names on it than his!
Under the fold are my endorsements for Superior Court Office Nos. 18, 29, 52, 53, and 69. They're based on the League of Women Voters questionnaire; my sample ballot is only lightly marked in pencil so arguments are welcome.
Office 18: Mildred Escobedo
Judicial appointments are a lot like the Myers-Briggs personality test: do you prefer fairness, or compassion? I prefer compassion (I'm an INFP).
Office 29: Flip a Coin
Is there a plague of disrespectful judges in the Superior Court? I'm not sure that "I promise not to be a big ol' jerk" is a persuasive platform element. For the record, both candidates for Office 29 promise not to be big ol' jerks, so if you're worried about a lack of dignity and respect in the courtroom, your worries are over no matter who wins! Let's all go eat ice cream.
Office 52: Flip a Coin Laura Priver
There's only so much I can do when two people say, with equal vehemence and lack of detail, that they are diligent and fair and all that other judicial jazz. They both claim to be endorsed by Lee Baca! John Gutierrez has a mustache, but Laura Priver has creepy eyebrows! Meh.
UPDATE: As it turns out, Offices 52 and 53 are the only ones in which the two candidates have been given different ratings by the L.A. County Bar Association (here are all the ratings). Gutierrez is "qualified" but Priver is "well qualified". Creepy eyebrows it is!
Office 53: Daniel Zeke Zeidler
Although Zeke's soliloquy on the crushing isolation of the judicial bench is overwrought and alienating, after reading it I feel like I know him well enough to call him "Zeke" or even "Zekey baby" if the courtroom is empty. David Lopez didn't even answer all the questions. Fear the League of Women Voters questionnaire, David Lopez! Fear it now!
UPDATE: As it turns out, LACBA confirmed my initial estimation. Maybe attention to questionnaires is a reasonable proxy for commitment to public service after all?
Office 69, Dude! Donna Groman
Community justice is an appealing philosophy. I don't know if it can possibly deliver the fabulous recidivism rate of an underfunded yet somehow hideously expensive jail, but I'm sure as hell not voting for someone who capitalizes the word "history".
Thank you for bringing the “history” typo to my attention, since I’m the one who does the management for Judy Levey Meyer’s portion of the SmartVoter website and not the candidate herself. Although I do my best to proofread my work, I am human and don’t always catch everything as you can see. The error has been corrected. Thanks again for the heads up.
Oh! You’re certainly welcome! As I hope you realize, my commentary is goofy and snarky but the endorsements themselves are serious. So it shan’t change my vote, but it was good of you to drop by.
Office No. 29 is a tough call, but instead of flipping a coin, I realized I could not possibly vote to give more power to anyone who uses the word “quasi-judicial.”
Yeah. Gus Gomez has both the local Democratic clubs and the Pasadena Star-News, which cancel each other out in my book. Lee Baca really needs to stop endorsing people, and some woman on KPFK was slightly in favor of Lori Jones.
“Quasi-judicial” is a good call, but I think I’ll cancel you out on this one since I like prefixes.