By Charles Boteler
Chair and President, KJCCC
Charles Boteler of Owensboro, a retired circuit judge, is president and chair of the Kentucky Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee Inc., a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan group organized to safeguard the integrity of the judiciary in Kentucky's judicial elections.
Chair and President, KJCCC
Almost 40 years
ago, with bipartisan support, Kentuckians amended our constitution to create a
unified statewide court system with non-partisan judicial elections, ending a
system in which judicial candidates ran under political-party labels. In 2014 Kentucky
will elect all of its district, circuit, and Court of Appeals judges. In
addition, four justices of the Kentucky Supreme Court will be elected.
The Kentucky
Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee was organized in 2006 as a private group to
monitor judicial elections to ensure as best possible that our judges are
selected fairly and in a manner that promotes the values of democracy and a
free and independent judiciary.
For the most part,
Kentucky has avoided the bitter, overly politicized, and expensive judicial elections
which occasionally have marred judicial selection in some other states, most
recently Tennessee.
In this election
year the KJCCC makes two requests. First, we ask all judicial candidates to
campaign in such a way that their campaigns
positively support a court system that will be able to resolve, fairly and in
accordance with the rule of law, the various disputes that will require
litigation. Though some kinds of campaign activity may be constitutionally
permissible, we ask candidates to refrain from the kinds of campaigning that
sully the election process and even more importantly call into question the
effectiveness and impartiality of our courts.
Second, we urge
Kentucky voters to insist that judicial candidates wage campaigns that focus on
the issues relevant to the selection of a judiciary best equipped to function
as an independent and competent court system. Judicial elections are different and
Kentucky will be served best by judges free to evaluate fairly the evidence and
legal issues in all cases that might come before them.
Kentucky has
selected its judges by popular election since the adoption of its third
constitution in 1850. Popular election works best when candidates are committed
to fair campaigns, and voters are committed equally to informed
decision-making.
In this important
election year, the Kentucky Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee pledges it will
assist in its role as a private monitoring group dedicated to promoting the
values of a well-functioning, independent judiciary, dedicated to the rule of
law.Charles Boteler of Owensboro, a retired circuit judge, is president and chair of the Kentucky Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee Inc., a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan group organized to safeguard the integrity of the judiciary in Kentucky's judicial elections.
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