Bolling reacts to judicial appointment ethics questions
After learning this weekend that Sen. Yvonne Miller has hijacked the judicial appointment process in Norfolk and Virginia Beach and Sen. Creigh Deeds accepted campaign money from an appointee’s law firm (where she is one of two partners) before he strongly advocated for her selection, we asked Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, the presiding officer of the Senate, his thoughts on how these Senators were behaving.
Bolling wrote Bearing Drift:
“Unfortunately, I don’t really think this situation is that unusual. I suspect you would find that a large percentage of judicial appointees have had some prior political involvement, including financial support to candidates or causes. However, it can create the appearance of impropriety, and that’s one of the reasons why I have always favored a judicial selection process that focuses more on merit, and less on politics. We’ve proposed that from time to time, but the General Assembly has not shown a willingness to give up their power to appoint judges.”
Bolling, along with AG McDonnell in 2000, proposed merit-based selection of judicial appointments. In this past weekend’s RTD, Bolling received the following kudos:
The objection is that the process for selecting judges is a borderline farce. It’s possible the unseemliness of the proceedings discourages talented persons from seeking positions on the bench. During his years in the State Senate, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling offered a better way. He authorized an independent panel to vet judicial candidates and to make recommendations.
Category: Catch-All
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From The Roanoke Times, 2/23/05:
Two years ago, Marc Long was up for a Circuit Court judgeship in the 27th Judicial Circuit. He was backed by the circuit’s largest bar association, but the General Assembly chose someone else.
Since then, Long has made large donations to Republicans in the Republican-controlled General Assembly. Now he is poised to become a judge.
Some members of the Radford-Montgomery Bar Association say legislators overlooked their endorsement for the new Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge for the 27th District and instead are basing their choice today on Long’s campaign contributions.
The bar association in January unanimously endorsed Radford attorney Meg Stone, a Republican, for the new judgeship that covers Montgomery, Floyd, Giles, Pulaski, Carroll, Wythe, Grayson and Bland counties, as well as the cities of Radford and Galax.
But Stone was informed in a Feb. 10 letter from Del. Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg, and Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, that she will not get the job when the legislature makes its nomination today.
Legislators instead are expected to appoint the only candidate that the Senate Courts of Justice Committee and the House Judicial Panel brought in for an interview: Marc Long, a Republican attorney from Blacksburg and a Radford-Montgomery bar member.
Nutter said bar members are wrong if they think Long’s donations will influence the upcoming appointment. “I’m not going to dignify that kind of trash,” Nutter said. “To make that connection is frankly a despicable statement. It’s ignorant.”
But John Dalton, a Radford attorney and bar association member, said he met with Nutter before the legislative session began in January, and Nutter told him Long would get a judgeship because he had influential backing.
“I’m not sure who that backing is from, but it certainly is from someone,” said Dalton, an outspoken critic of Long.
Nutter said the bar is simply upset because it does not have the power to appoint judges to the bench, a job he said should lie with the legislature. And he refused to comment on Dalton’s allegation that Nutter said Long had powerful backers.
Legislators should listen to the people not other legislators or bar associations. The general public is more objective and they know who would serve well as a judge.