I don't normally do reposts, but I think that if there was ever a case for an exception, this is it. I mentioned on Sunday that a fairly well-organized stealth effort to pack San Diego's courts is well underway. So for the benefit of any San Diego-area Kossacks who missed it due to the long weekend, I figured I should post another alert.
Four fundie attorneys are mounting an effort to unseat four San Diego County Superior Court judges in the June 8 judicial elections with the backing of an organization called "Better Courts Now." Although the group's Website mentions an innocuous goal of greater accountability, the four candidates made clear what their real agenda is to the AP.
"We believe our country is under assault and needs Christian values," said Craig Candelore, a family law attorney who is one of the group's candidates. "Unfortunately, God has called upon us to do this only with the judiciary."
Judicial elections traditionally go under the radar--which is why it's even more critical to turn back this textbook stealth campaign.
Better Courts Now was founded by Don Hamer, the late pastor of Zion Christian Fellowship in San Diego. You may remember him as the voice of seven videos back in 2008 that claimed Obama wasn't really a Christian (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7), including one in which he accused Obama of being a Muslim. Hamer personally vetted all four candidates before he died in March. One of Hamer's colleagues, Brian Hendry, has continued the drive, and has lined up support from other fundie churches as well as anti-gun control activists.
Visiting Better Courts Now's Website, you'd think it was just a nonpartisan effort to get better judges. But the four candidates make no bones about their real intent--and it's giving the four incumbents pause.
Lantz Lewis, who has been a judge for 20 years, said his opponent's campaign is taking judicial elections in the wrong direction.
"I have no problem with elections, but I think it really should focus on a judge's qualifications, and it's very difficult to think something good could come out of a partisan judicial election," he said.
Better Courts Now recently tried to organize a debate between the four incumbents and the challengers--but the incumbents turned it down.
Lewis said "Better Courts Now" appears to be seeking allegiance to its views — not accountability.
"That's one of the reasons, we declined the invitation to go to that forum," he said. "I just don't think judges should be in a situation, where they are asked, 'Do you believe in God, abortion, gay marriage?'"
If judges proclaim to be either liberals or conservatives, people will feel the decks are either stacked against them or in their favor. If only one parent goes to church and the other does not in a child custody battle, a judge proclaimed to be a conservative Christian may favor the churchgoer, he said.
Something else to think about--three of the incumbents are considered "well qualified" by the San Diego County Bar Association, the highest grade possible. The same group gave three of the challengers its lowest rating, "lacking qualifications." And this is in a county which, until recently, was one of the reddest urbanized counties in the nation.
Update: Here are the videos for the four candidates--all of which sound innocuous: Candelore in office #14, Harold Coleman in office #27, Bill Trask in office #21 and Larry "Jake" Kincaid in office #34. All are laden with standard talking points about judges following law and not making law. Nothing at all about their radical fundie agenda. As I said earlier, this is a textbook stealth campaign.
Update #2: The incumbents in this race are Lantz Lewis in office #14, Robert Longstreth in office #21, Joel Wohlfeil in office #34 and DeAnn Salcido in office #27. The San Diego Union-Tribune offered a ringing endorsement of Lewis, Longstreth and Wohlfeil, while declining to endorse Salcido because she, like Coleman, was given a failing grade by the area bar association.