Update On My JEPAC Rating; Indianapolis Bar Association Allows Its Image to be Tarnished by Participating in Political Games

I wrote yesterday about how C. Joseph Russell was playing politics with the IBA's Judicial Excellence Political Action Committee's judicial surveys.   This is a followup to that story.

C. Joseph Russell
Partner at Krieg DeVault

If there was any question that Russell was up to political shenanigans, that was erased by the result of the surveys posted today. I received an 18.1%, with only 116 people returning surveys. 18.1% is undoubtedly the lowest rating a judicial candidate has ever received...by far. There is no doubt that, from the very beginning, the plan was to reopen the survey to get a negative review for the purpose of using it as part of a political campaign.  That's why information was obtained from me under false pretenses and why Russell refused to honor my request that I not be surveyed, a request that has been honored for judicial candidates in the past. 

The problem though is the stunt Russell and the other members of the GOP establishment tried to pull backfired.  By so stacking the deck, they got a score that is not remotely credible and inadvertently reveals exactly what they were up to. The next lowest Republican, Clayton Graham, a person who has never served a day as judge, received a score over three times what I received - 60.0% to 18.1%.    No one is going to believe the 18.1% score is legitimate, especially since I've been an attorney for going on 25 years, clerked for a judge at the Indiana Court of Appeals for 3 1/2 years, worked in every branch of government, was a Deputy Attorney General and litigated hundreds of civil and criminal cases in our courts.  Obviously that doesn't happen unless there is a concerted effort to target an individual as they did with me.  So much for Russell's dishonest claim that the surveys are an accurate reflection of attorneys' views of the candidates.

A couple weeks ago, Governor Daniels called the Marion County judicial slating system a "travesty" and that paying a $12,000 slating amounted to nothing more than "purchasing" judgeships. The Indiana Judicial Commission said 20 years ago that paying a slating fee to receive a party endorsement is a violation of the Judicial Code of Conduct.  At a seminar on judicial selection I was at yesterday, several judges trashed the Marion County slating system, including former Indiana Supreme Court Justice Ted Boehm who said the slating system only produces two winners - the Republican and Democratic party chairmen, and over 800,000 losers, i.e. Marion County voters.

I am the only Republican candidate for judge who refused to participate in slating and refused to pay county chairman $12,000 to be endorsed by the party.  I believe that judges should follow the Code of Judicial Conduct and not pay the slating fee for a party endorsement.  I believe judges need to be independent and that Republican voters and not party bosses should decide who our judicial nominees are.

The party bosses do not like it one bit when you refuse to play the game by their rules.  That's fine.  I expect them to attack and try to discredit me.  That's the political game and I accept that by stepping in the arena.  What I object to though is that the Indianapolis Bar Association, an organization that claims to be nonpolitical and about improving the local bar, would allow itself to so blatantly be used to try to get political ammunition against a judicial candidate.   The IBA's image was badly tarnished today.

MARION SUPERIOR COURT
	Number of Replies	Yes	No	Approval %		Number of Replies	Yes	No	Approval %
DEMOCRAT					REPUBLICAN
Greg Bowes	129	68	61	52.7%	Robert R. Altice, Jr.	368	356	12	96.7%
Linda E. Brown	282	197	85	69.9%	Lisa A. Borges	225	157	68	69.8%
Thomas J. Carroll	410	281	129	68.5%	Sheila A. Carlisle	257	242	15	94.2%
John M.T. Chavis, II	137	108	29	78.8%	Clayton Graham	85	51	34	60.0%
Steven Eichholtz	301	207	94	68.8%	Amy M. Jones	132	112	20	84.8%
John F. Hanley	379	254	125	67.0%	James A. Joven	166	113	53	68.1%
Grant W. Hawkins	320	252	68	78.8%	Michael D. Keele	390	372	18	95.4%
Mark King	131	70	61	53.4%	Helen Marchal	183	158	25	86.3%
Becky Pierson-Treacy	316	97	219	30.7%	William J. Nelson	305	259	46	84.9%
Jose D. Salinas	224	177	47	79.0%	Paul K. Ogden	116	21	95	18.1%
Mark D. Stoner	279	267	12	95.7%	Carol J. Orbison	212	154	58	72.6%
Heather A. Welch	548	524	24	95.6%	Clark H. Rogers	213	179	34	84.0%