Usually, around here, if someone asks you to vote for their friend for judge, the reason’s not much of a mystery. I mean, when the operation goes sideways, we could all use a pal on the bench, right? Such personal insurance would normally be my motive for asking you to vote for my friend and neighbor Simone Levine for Criminal Court Judge tomorrow.
Except Simone isn’t your usual Orleans Parish judge candidate. While she’s followed a fairly typical path to the bench, serving as a defense attorney, and currently as assistant DA in the city, her last gig was as executive director of Court Watch NOLA, an organization formed to monitor the Criminal District court (she expanded the organization’s mandate to include the Municipal and Magistrate courts as well).
In fact, her whole career in New Orleans has been geared to making the courts more fair and transparent, and rendering having “a friend on the bench” meaningless, goals she pledges to further if elected this Saturday.
Which, while a great improvement for the city and the pursuit of justice overall, kinda sucks for me. I mean, I would have really liked having a friend on the bench.
But I guess I’d rather have a judge.
PS, If you are in Orleans Parish and wish to vote for Simone Levine but can’t remember the candidate, she’s the one whose name you can sing to the tune of “A Love Supreme.”