Tulsa World: Some appellate judges will be on the ballot

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Some appellate judges will be on the ballot

By BILL BRAUN World Staff Writer
Published: 10/26/2008 5:00 AM
Last Modified: 10/26/2008 5:35 AM

In balloting that flies under the radar, Oklahoma voters will decide whether to keep nine judges on the benches of three state appellate courts.

Under a retention system through which no Oklahoma judge has ever been voted out of office, three Oklahoma Supreme Court justices, two judges on the Court of Criminal Appeals and four members of the Court of Civil Appeals are up for consideration in the Nov. 4 general election.

Each judge appears on the ballot without an opponent and without affiliation to any political party.

Each judge needs 50 percent plus one vote to stay in office under a "yes-no" retention system. The governor would pick a replacement if any judge were rejected by voters.

In contrast to partisan nonjudicial campaigns, "most of the retention candidates stay in the passive mode," said Supreme Court Justice John Reif of Skiatook.

Reif thinks average voters trust the news media "to tell them if one of the judges was a bad egg" and that most voters are "inclined to give the benefit of the doubt" if they "haven't heard anything bad" about a particular judge.

Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Gary Lumpkin said that "there are so few avenues of information for the average person."

"You have to have faith that the right thing is going to happen," he said.

Court of Civil Appeals Judge Jane Wiseman of Tulsa said that "word of mouth is very important." She thinks voters who don't know much about a specific office or candidate are inclined to ask friends for their opinion.

Also important is "what your reputation is in the legal community for doing your job fairly," Wiseman said.

Supreme Court

Justices on this year's ballot are Reif, Tom Colbert and Joseph Watt.

Gov. Brad Henry appointed Reif to the Supreme Court in October 2007.

Prior to that, Reif, 57, had been a member of the Court of Civil Appeals since 1984. He is a former Tulsa County special district judge.

Colbert became the first black justice on the high court when Henry appointed him in 2004.

Colbert, 58, previously was a member of the Court of Civil Appeals. When Gov. Frank Keating selected him for that spot in 2000, Colbert became the highest-ranking black judge to serve on a state court in Oklahoma.

Watt, 61, joined the Supreme Court in 2002. Gov. David Walters appointed Watt, who had worked as general counsel for Walters.

Watt is a former trial judge in Jackson County in southwest Oklahoma.

Court of Criminal Appeals

Two veteran members of the court, Lumpkin and Charles Johnson, are up for ballot-box review in 2008.

Lumpkin, 62, and Johnson, 77, both joined the appeals court in 1989, based upon appointments by Gov. Henry Bellmon.

Lumpkin, the current presiding judge, is a former prosecutor and trial judge in Marshall County in southern Oklahoma.

Johnson had a private law practice in Ponca City prior to joining the state's top court on criminal matters.

Court of Civil Appeals

Judges on this year's ballot are Wiseman, Jerry Goodman, Keith Rapp and John Fischer.

Wiseman, 61, was a Tulsa County judge for 28 years before Henry named her to the appellate bench in 2005.

She was sworn in as a special district judge in 1977 and became a district judge in 1981.

Goodman, 69, has been on the intermediate appeals court since 1994.

When appointed by Walters, he was the governor's chief operating officer and Cabinet secretary of policy and management. Goodman previously had a Tulsa law practice.

Rapp, the court's current chief judge, has been on the appeals court since 1984.

Rapp, 74, is a former district judge for Tulsa and Pawnee counties.

Fischer, 60, was appointed to the appellate court in 2006. He is a former assistant state attorney general, and he had a private law practice in Oklahoma City.

Based on guidelines involving appointments to unexpired terms, Fischer faces the prospect of another retention vote in 2010.

Appellate court judges

Salaries: Range from $130,410 to $147,000

Term: Six years

Duties: The Oklahoma Supreme Court administers the state’s judicial system and is the state’s court of last resort for civil cases.

The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals is the intermediate appellate court for civil matters.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is the state court of last resort in criminal matters.

Bill Braun 581-8455
bill.braun@tulsaworld.com By BILL BRAUN World Staff Writer

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	Report Comment okie ridgerunner, small town (10/26/2008 2:48:04 PM) Who knows. either way coud be a big mistake.
	Report Comment wk, (10/27/2008 11:16:33 PM) No one should ever be retained unless they establish that they have met the responsibilities of the job and performed at a high level- especially when they get paid $140k plus.

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