Normally I’m a proponent of electing as many public officials as possible. Politicians who have to go before the people every four years or so are much more responsive than those who are appointed. They’re more likely to address citizen complaints, answer reporters’ phone calls and be willing to open up their actions to public scrutiny.
Simply put, the best check on good government is to elect your leaders. That’s a basic American premise and one that is strong in Mississippi, as evidenced by our tendency to elect just about everything. That goes from the Governor’s Mansion on down to the county coroners.
Yet the system seems to be falling short in one area: selection of appellate judges. The public just doesn’t know enough about the candidates in most cases to make informed decisions.
A perfect example is the ongoing Mississippi Court of Appeals race in a 15-county area that includes Marion County. David McCarty, a Jackson attorney, fell just short of the needed 50 percent plus one vote in the Nov. 6 general election and will face Hinds County Circuit Judge Jeff Weill in a Nov. 27 runoff.
They are both qualified candidates but represent different ideologies. Weill is a former Republican Jackson City Councilman and endorsed by conservative groups. McCarty has strong support from the Democratic plaintiff’s wing of the state bar.
Hey, that’s what we should want in our elections: A real choice between legitimate candidates offering diverse perspectives.
And they both campaigned hard: McCarty brought in about $185,000, according to the Oct. 30 campaign finance reports, while Weill raised nearly $160,000. They ran effective advertisements in a mix of media. Weill touted his experience as a circuit judge and his endorsement by Gov. Phil Bryant, a popular conservative leader. McCarty emphasized his appellate experience and background teaching law.
And Weill, in particular, also did a lot of grassroots campaigning. He stopped by the Marion County courthouse, for example, along with other spots in Columbia.
A third candidate, Jackson attorney Byron Carter didn’t campaign at all: He raised $0 according to his finance reports.
Yet on Election Day, Carter did almost as well as Weill. In Marion County, for example, McCarty received 4,279 votes, Weill 1,789 and Carter 1,653. So McCarty, the more liberal candidate, got 55 percent in a conservative county where Republicans got 67 percent of the vote in the U.S. Senate special election. And Carter got 21 percent without doing anything.
How did that happen? The only explanation is that Carter’s name came first on the ballot because of alphabetical order, and voters who hadn’t researched the race at all just marked the top name. Another significant portion of Republicans, who tend to be very sensitive about liberal judges, voted for McCarty, presumably just at random.
That’s discouraging for people like me who believe in the ideal of self-governance. I’d rather just leave that race unmarked if I didn’t know anything about either candidate.
The system is ripe for a change. What’s the best way to do it? An effective system is already in place in Tennessee.
Originally, a judicial nominating commission made up of 17 people, a majority of which had to be attorneys, accepted applications from any lawyer living in the state. The commission then chose who it deemed to be the best three candidates. The governor could then pick one of them or reject the entire panel, in which case three new candidates were brought forward by the committee and the governor had to choose one the second time. The judge took office, and at the next statewide general election that judge came up for a yes or no vote. It was extremely unusual for a judge to be voted down, but in cases of abuse of office it gave the public needed input.
In 2014, Tennessee voters approved an amendment to the state constitution in a referendum that changed the system some. The governor now selects a nominee himself, and the nominee must then be approved by the state legislature.
Either way, the original or modified Tennessee Plan presents a starting point for discussing how Mississippi can improve its system to make sure the best candidates fill these important seats.
Charlie Smith is editor and publisher of The C-P. Reach him at (601) 736-2611.
