Florida judicial elections, 2012

Judicial Elections
Elections, 2012
Judicial election dates
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The Florida judicial elections will consist of a primary on August 14th and general election in November 6th.

The filing deadline for judicial offices is April 16 through April 20, 2012.

Supreme Court

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Office	Primary Vote	Election Vote
ParienteBarbara Pariente   A	Yes			A
LewisFred Lewis   A	Yes			A
QuincePeggy Quince   A	Yes			A

District Courts of Appeal

First District

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Office	Primary Vote	Election Vote
ThomasBradford Thomas   A	Yes			A
SwansonRonald V. Swanson   A	Yes			A
MarstillerSimone Marstiller   A	Yes			A
RayStephanie Williams Ray   A	Yes			A

Second District

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Office	Primary Vote	Election Vote
BlackAnthony K. Black   A	Yes			A
DavisCharles A. Davis   A	Yes			A
CasanuevaDarryl Casanueva   A	Yes			A
LaRoseEdward LaRose   A	Yes			A

Third District

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Office	Primary Vote	Election Vote
CortinaAngel Cortinas   A	Yes			A
FernandezIvan F. Fernandez   A	Yes			A
EmasKevin M. Emas   A	Yes			A
RothenbergLeslie Rothenberg   A	Yes			A
SuarezRichard Suarez   A	Yes			A

Fourth District

To organize the columns, click on the arrows in the column heading.

Candidate	Incumbency	Office	Primary Vote	Election Vote
ConnerBurton C. Conner   A	Yes			A
TaylorCarole Taylor   A	Yes			A

Circuit Court

For Circuit Court judicial elections, please visit: Florida judicial elections, 2012 - Circuit Court

County Court

For County Court judicial elections, please visit: Florida judicial elections, 2012 - County Court

Ballot measure

Certified

Florida Supreme Court, Amendment 5 (2012) was a Legislatively-referred constitutional amendment proposed by the Florida House of Representatives that appeared on the November 6, 2012 statewide ballot. The measure was defeated.

The measure sought to make a number of changes to the Florida Supreme Court, including:

• Adding three justices to the seven-member court.
• Creating two divisions - civil and criminal - within the high court with five justices each.
• Assigning the governor to appoint the chief justices for each division and two alternate chief justices of the entire court.
• Requiring appointees to be confirmed by the Senate.
• Granting the House access to investigative files of the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission.
• Setting aside at least 2.25 percent of the state's general revenue to fund the judicial branch.

The measure was supported by the Florida Chamber of Commerce and opposed by some judges and the Florida Bar.

The official ballot text read as follows:

“

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ARTICLE V, SECTIONS 2, 11, AND 12 STATE COURTS.—Proposing a revision of Article V of the State Constitution relating to the judiciary. The State Constitution authorizes the Supreme Court to adopt rules for the practice and procedure in all courts. The constitution further provides that a rule of court may be repealed by a general law enacted by a two-thirds vote of the membership of each house of the Legislature. This proposed constitutional revision eliminates the requirement that a general law repealing a court rule pass by a two-thirds vote of each house, thereby providing that the Legislature may repeal a rule of court by a general law approved by a majority vote of each house of the Legislature that expresses the policy behind the repeal. The court could readopt the rule in conformity with the public policy expressed by the Legislature, but if the Legislature determines that a rule has been readopted and repeals the readopted rule, this proposed revision prohibits the court from further readopting the repealed rule without the Legislature's prior approval. Under current law, rules of the judicial nominating commissions and the Judicial Qualifications Commission may be repealed by general law enacted by a majority vote of the membership of each house of the Legislature. Under this proposed revision, a vote to repeal those rules is changed to repeal by general law enacted by a majority vote of the legislators present. Under current law, the Governor appoints a justice of the Supreme Court from a list of nominees provided by a judicial nominating commission, and appointments by the Governor are not subject to confirmation. This revision requires Senate confirmation of a justice of the Supreme Court before the appointee can take office. If the Senate votes not to confirm the appointment, the judicial nominating commission must reconvene and may not renominate any person whose prior appointment to fill the same vacancy was not confirmed by the Senate. For the purpose of confirmation, the Senate may meet at any time. If the Senate fails to vote on the appointment of a justice within 90 days, the justice will be deemed confirmed and will take office. The Judicial Qualifications Commission is an independent commission created by the State Constitution to investigate and prosecute before the Florida Supreme Court alleged misconduct by a justice or judge. Currently under the constitution, commission proceedings are confidential until formal charges are filed by the investigative panel of the commission. Once formal charges are filed, the formal charges and all further proceedings of the commission are public. Currently, the constitution authorizes the House of Representatives to impeach a justice or judge. Further, the Speaker of the House of Representatives may request, and the Judicial Qualifications Commission must make available, all information in the commission's possession for use in deciding whether to impeach a justice or judge. This proposed revision requires the commission to make all of its files available to the Speaker of the House of Representatives but provides that such files would remain confidential during any investigation by the House of Representatives and until such information is used in the pursuit of an impeachment of a justice or judge. This revision also removes the power of the Governor to request files of the Judicial Qualifications Commission to conform to a prior constitutional change. This revision also makes technical and clarifying additions and deletions relating to the selection of chief judges of a circuit and relating to the Judicial Qualifications Commission, and makes other nonsubstantive conforming and technical changes in the judicial article of the constitution.

”

In the News

Florida 2012 retention elections

As featured in JP Election Brief: 2012 Retention Elections on July 5, 2012.

In Florida, judicial retention elections for Supreme Court justices and appellate court judges are held once every six years. This year, three Supreme Court justices and 15 appellate court judges face retention.

The Supreme Court race is proving to be especially contentious, as various conservative groups and other individuals have been fighting against the retention of Justices Barbara Pariente, Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince. The organization, Restore Justice 2012, is trying to oust these justices on the grounds of inappropriate judicial activism--pointing to a 2010 healthcare ruling and a 2006 death penalty ruling. In addition, the Southeastern Legal Foundation was arguing a lawsuit that accused the justices' of illegally using court employees to file their election paperwork.

Florida Bar sheds light on retention elections

As featured in JP Election Brief: Candidates filing in Michigan, Kentucky, Washington and more! on May 3, 2012.

The Florida Bar, on April 30, launched an online voter-education program called "The Vote's in Your Court" to shed some light on the upcoming judicial retention elections. The Bar has found that many voters don't understand the retention process and often skip the judicial section of the ballot. The new web page provides information on the three Supreme Court justices and 15 Appellate Court judges up for retention this fall. For better or worse, voters have never removed a judge from office since the retention system began over 30 years ago.

Scott Hawkins, president of the Florida Bar, explained, "Democracy works best when there’s good information." (Here at Judgepedia, we couldn't agree more!)

One issue facing Florida judicial candidates is their inability to explain their political opinions, due to the nonpartisan nature of the judicial races. They are also prohibited from explaining past rulings or stating how they may rule in the future. It is up to the voters to delve into a judge's history and determine whether or not they are fit for the bench.

Members of Nominating Commission prohibited from participating in campaigns

As featured in JP Election Brief: Changing the rules in Florida and Nevada (and more!) on April 19, 2012.

On April 16, the Florida Supreme Court decided that the members of the Judicial Nominating Commission, who are responsible for nominating judges to the high court, will not be allowed to participate in any judicial races in the state. The new policies angered some of the commissioners, who felt stripped of their rights. Those in favor are hoping the rules will prevent politics from tainting the judicial selection process.

The JNC passed the following policies with a 5-4 vote:

• No Commissioner, during his or her term of service on the Commission, shall contribute to or participate actively in any campaign efforts to retain or defeat currently sitting Supreme Court Justices and Appellate Judges. No Commissioner, during his or her term of service on the Commission, shall contribute to or participate actively in any campaign efforts to elect or defeat and candidate for County or Circuit Judge.

• No Commissioner shall seek to publish or permit anyone else to publish his/her status as a Commissioner with any effort to retain or defeat any sitting Supreme Court Justice or Appellate Judge. No Commissioner shall seek to publish or permit anyone else to publish his/her status as a Commissioner with any effort to elect or defeat any County or Circuit Judge.

Tallahassee lawyer Jason Unger is opposed to the rules. He explained, "I don’t like the idea of prohibiting people on the commission from free speech...Frankly, it’s better to have it out in the public. If one of us widely supported someone it’s better to have that in public record."

Rutledge Liles, a Jacksonville lawyer, supported the limitations, stating, "I personally am not going to involve myself in any campaign for the sake of the appearance of impropriety."

Campaign to not retain kicks off in Florida

As featured in JP Election Brief: Heading south with news from Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Texas on March 15, 2012.

A fight seems to brewing around Florida's upcoming judicial retention election (typically a placid, uncontested affair) as an organized effort to oust incumbent Justices Barbara Pariente, Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince from the Supreme Court gains ground. The justices are running in November for the renewal of their six-year terms, which would otherwise expire at the beginning of 2013. The retention election is normally a shoe-in. No Supreme Court justice or District Court of Appeals judge has ever been voted off the bench since the state's current judicial selection process began in 1976. However, Jesse Phillips hopes to end that streak.

Phillips is the head of Restore Justice 2012 and is trying to remove the three justices from the bench. He explained, "I wouldn't want a judge thrown off the bench for one bad ruling. But what we've seen on the Florida Supreme Court is a pattern of judicial activism." Specifically, the organization points to a 2010 ruling that removed the Florida Health Care Freedom Act from the ballot and a 2006 ruling that declared a voter-approved constitutional amendment regarding the death penalty unconstitutional.

However, a number of legal minds are endorsing the justices' retention, including three former presidents of the Florida Bar, a former Attorney General Bob Butterworth and former Justice Raoul Cantero. Dan Stengle, the legal counsel for the retention campaign, is worried about the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which removes limits of corporate donations to judicial campaigns. "The issue in this campaign is, what is the purpose of merit retention? …Who knows how much money, under Citizens United, the special interests might want to spend to get rid of a judge."

Another issue was raised by Sen. Alex Villalobos, leader of Democracy at Stake. He found that most of the voters lose interest in, or get confused by, the down-ballot races. "The people who go all the way down to the bottom of the ballot tend to vote 'No' because they think something must be wrong if we're asking whether this guy should be retained on the bench," he said.

Regardless of the outcome, this is shaping up to be a hot race.

External links

• Florida Division of Elections, 2012 Offices Up for Election
• Florida Division of Elections, Candidate Listing 2012

References