District Judge? or Joke?

I know I am a bit behind the eight ball on this post as it has been nearly three weeks since the recent District Judge elections were held, but it stills weighs heavy on my mind and I before I wrote a post I wanted to have some concrete data.....survey results are in! (Posted throughout the blog post.)

The district judge position is a very important role. Whether it is a district judge, Human Resource Judge or US Supreme Court Judge they are ALL very important roles. Therefore just because this election was held for a District Judge in Columbia County does not make the importance of this position any less important.

The candidates: In my opinion there was only one qualified candidate (Mr. Russell Lawton) and thankfully it looks like he is the winner! I will not go into great detail about the other candidates other than Mr. Britton.

In my personal opinion you should have an extensive background in law. You do not need to be a big time attorney, but some sense of law (no, a degree in Political Science doesn't count).

I recently asked a few of my friends, colleagues (two of which are attorney's) to take part in a survey I created on SurveryMonkey.com asking three specific questions related to this election.

The first question was "Should District Judge candidates be Attorney's?" 89.5% of the people taking the survey said "YES" with 10.5% responding with "NO". As mentioned above, I disagree. I do NOT think you need to be an Attorney to be a district judge.

The second question I asked was "Should District Judge candidates have a legal/criminal justice background?" Again, the results were definitely one sided with 94.7% of the results saying "YES" and only 5.3% saying "NO". I did not take part in this survey, however I would be in the group that said YES. I think it is very important to have a criminal background.

The third and final question I asked was "Should District Judge candidates be eligible to run with NO legal background at all?". The results were unanimous! 100% of the individuals taking the survey replied with a "YES".

Like the Senators or Representatives I believe District Judge candidates should have an age (or experience level) requirement attached to them. They are not making small decisions....they are making LIFE ALTERING decisions. I think "Rusty" was the best candidate for this position and I am pleased that he is the preliminary winner. Mr. Britton on the other hand may be a well educated individual (book smarts), but does he really have the legal background to make a sound legal decision? His bio stated he worked at ICT Group as a call representative. He may have a degree is Political Science (not sure what his GPA was), but in my opinion that does not qualify you for a District Judge position.

Our political system is so screwed up! There are politicians "selling Senate seats" there are Judges taking comission for sending kids to a juvinile detention center.

I think we need to take a step back and re-evaluate the system.

On a side note I give kudo's to Chaz Britton for running. It takes guts to open yourself to the political arena. I wish him well for future elections!