A claim by Letcher Circuit
Judge Sam Wright in his campaign for the Kentucky Supreme Court is false and
misrepresents the role of a judge or justice, the Kentucky Judicial Campaign
Conduct Committee has found.
On a counter-complaint by
Judge Wright, the committee found that his opponent, Court of Appeals Judge
Janet Stumbo, made an inaccurate claim about her length of service, and that
her campaign made a claim about Wright’s fund-raising that the committee was
unable to substantiate.
The first complaint, by
Stumbo’s campaign, was about a Wright commercial saying Stumbo “sided with
criminals nearly 60 percent of the time” when she was on the Supreme Court. Wright
told the committee that the figure “comes from the fact that Janet Stumbo voted
in favor of the convicted criminal defendant in 59% of the published cases in
which she voted during the last five years she was a justice of the Kentucky
Supreme Court. The published cases were
used because those are the ones in which the court is establishing law or
making precedent.”
In a letter to Wright, the
committee said, “The ad fails to consider the number of unpublished criminal
cases in which Janet Stumbo would have participated as a justice on the Supreme
Court. The 60 percent figure may be significantly different if all criminal
cases were considered.”
Beyond the question of
numbers, the committee told Wright that judges and justices are supposed “to
base decisions on the law and to not take sides. Many convictions are
reversed due to procedural, statutory or constitutional issues, and these
decisions should not be represented as ‘siding with criminals.’ To say
otherwise is to purposely mislead the electorate on the role of a judge or
justice.”
The committee told Wright, “Our
committee has determined in previous elections for the Kentucky Supreme Court
that similar campaign ads making this type of allegation were improper, and we
do so again. Your ad undermines the high standards by which judicial campaigns
should be conducted.”
The committee reminded
Wright, and reminds voters, that Kentucky’s nonpartisan judicial elections are
different from those for executive or legislative offices. The committee
believes campaigns for judicial office should uphold the integrity and
impartiality of the judiciary. The committee asked Wright to “cease the use of
this ad or similar advertising making this claim and refrain from using it in
the remainder of the campaign.”
After being notified of the
complaint against him, Wright filed two complaints against Stumbo, making
several allegations. The committee concluded that two were worthy of
examination: Stumbo’s claim in an ad that she has 25 years of experience as an
appellate-court judge, “more than any other person in the history of this
commonwealth,” and her campaign’s May 7 claim on its Facebook page that he was
raising money by calling prospects and handing the phone to another person who
requested a contribution to Wright’s campaign.
The committee found that
Justice Donald Wintersheimer served on the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court
for more than 29 years, more than Stumbo. It asked the Stumbo campaign for the
source of its fund-raising allegation, and the campaign provided a name.
However, that person did not substantiate the claim made by the campaign.
The Kentucky Judicial
Campaign Conduct Committee is an independent, non-governmental, non-partisan
group of interested citizens from all over Kentucky, with a mix of lawyers, non-lawyers,
Democrats, Republicans and independents. Each year there is a judicial
election, the committee offers candidates an agreement in which they pledge to
run fair and dignified campaigns, and disavow false or misleading ads and other
campaign tactics that “impugn the integrity of the judicial system, the
integrity of a candidate, or erode public trust and confidence in the
independence and impartiality of the judiciary.” Only two of the 26 candidates
seeking judicial office in Kentucky this fall did not sign the agreement: Ron
Schwoeppe, who is running for a district judgeship in Louisville, and Judge Sam
Wright.
Members of the committee are
retired circuit judge Charles Boteler, Owensboro; retired Court of Appeals judge
Tony Wilhoit, Versailles; Al Cross, Frankfort, secretary; Jon Fleischaker,
Louisville, secretary; Jane Baker, Glasgow; Steve Cawood, Pineville; William
Fortune, Lexington; Kate Hendrickson, Maysville; Spencer Noe, Lexington; Dennis
Null, Mayfield; Marcia Milby Ridings, London; Howard Roberts, Pikeville; Bill
Robinson, Covington; Cecile Schubert, Richmond; Kathy Walker, Paintsville; and
Elaine Wilson, Somerset.
