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September 2, 2010 |
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| July 27, 2010 |
By: Jose Pagliery |
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ounty Court Judge Lee Jay Seidman, who ditched a re-election campaign to seek an open circuit court seat, is the only sitting judge in Broward who lost a straw poll of attorneys, according to an independent survey.
The poll, which generated responses from 8 percent of Broward lawyers, shows they favor Seidman’s opponent, attorney Sandra Perlman. She received 67 percent to Seidman’s 33 percent.
“It tells me that I’m going win,” Perlman said Monday.
When asked about the difficulty of running against a judge, Perlman said, “He’s a judge, but he’s running on his record as a judge.”
Otherwise, sitting judges came out ahead in the online survey conducted from June 15 to July 23. The man behind the poll, Fort Lauderdale software architect and political consultant Dan Lewis, initiated the project after the Broward County Bar Association decided not to conduct a poll in the busiest judicial election on record.
Respondents were asked who they would vote for in each judicial race. Respondents were required to indicate a preference in all races.
The closest race was between Circuit Judge Barbara Anne McCarthy and attorney Alan Bernstein, who were nine points apart, receiving 56 percent and 44 percent, respectively.
McCarthy said she was glad to be favored in the poll but shrugged off the importance of holding a wider lead.
“I’m grateful that I got the nod, but that’s not really what’s relevant. It’s my broad base of experience and what I bring to the bench. A judicial campaign is not like a horse race where it matters who gets a little bit ahead,” she said.
Bernstein, who said any incumbent would do better than a challenger in attorney surveys, said he’s still happy with the results.
Circuit Judge Kenneth Gillespie was favored by the widest margin, with 89 percent saying they would vote for him. Also winning the straw poll with at least 80 percent were Circuit Judges Lisa Porter and Elijah Williams, County Court Judge Mary Rudd Robinson and Circuit Judge Carlos A. Rodriguez.
Of the five, all but Porter are minority judges, which may reflect bar sentiment that certain incumbents have been unfairly targeted. All black and Hispanic judges with expiring terms drew opponents this year, a repeat of 2008, and many fear all minority judges up for election will again be replaced.
Ghenete Wright Muir, president of Broward’s black bar group, the T.J. Reddick Bar Association, said the poll results should dissolve any doubts of the judges’ abilities.
“The ratings are a clear indication that the minority judges are outstanding. They’re doing very well in their seats and in the community. The message here is that they’re highly qualified and the voters should vote with confidence to retain them,” she said.
Gillespie tops poll
The straw poll gave Gillespie the widest win, with a 78 percentage point difference over his challenger, former Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Mayor Oliver Parker.
The judge didn’t respond to a call for comment by deadline.
Parker was critical of the poll, labeling it too small to represent the sentiments of most lawyers.
“I bet almost all the lawyers do criminal defense, and I really don’t care. The lawyers aren’t the ones who are going to decide this race. The people are,” he said. “What would be more interesting would be a poll of the voters and see who they vote for. We have a problem in Broward County. We have a number of judges who have engaged in embarrassing behavior, including the judge I’m running against. We need to clean up our mess. And we’re not going to restore that confidence by re-electing the judges who have embarrassed us in the past.”
Park has accused Gillespie of a conflict of interest by allowing his campaign treasurer, criminal defense attorney J. David Bogenshutz, to continue to appear in cases before him.
During the last election cycle, the minority incumbent judges facing opposition were highly favored by the bar, but all went down in defeat.
Lawyers tend to take the position that competent judges should not be targeted in elections. In contrast, voters who generally have limited familiarity with judicial candidates tend to vote based on perceived ethnicity.
Rodriguez, who sits in the criminal division, said he was glad to receive the positive reinforcement.
“It’s a reflection over what happens in court. It’s a good thing. I don’t think it’s a reaction to anything other than the qualifications,” he said.
Lewis said he created the poll for that reason.
“If we don’t care about our judiciary, we’re all going to get screwed,” he said. He stepped up to the plate, he said, “because I can.”
A link to the online survey was e-mailed to 6,786 Florida Bar members in Broward. It included a ballot and a list of 37 optional questions assessing each candidate’s qualifications. Attorneys who responded to the simulated ballot chose between candidates in every race.
He said poll results would be an important election tool for voters, especially during a year with so many hotly contested races.
“With so many judges on the ballot, one would think that one of the best indicators of who would be good is what their colleagues think of them,” said Lewis, who does database research for political campaigns and runs the Florida voter search site PoliticalStrategies.com.
Jose Pagliery can be reached at (305) 347-6648. |
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