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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Ind. Courts - More on Daniels' veto of HEA 1491

Ed Ronco has this report in the South Bend Tribune. Some quotes:

Gov. Mitch Daniels has vetoed a bill that would have moved St. Joseph Superior Court judges to nonpartisan elections.

But the veto doesn't mean the fight is over, said the bill's author, state Rep. Craig Fry, D-Mishawaka.

In a statement explaining his veto, Daniels said St. Joseph County's model of selecting judges is "to be emulated, not discarded. It is not broken; it requires no repair."

St. Joseph Superior Court judges are nominated to the bench by a committee of lawyers and citizens. Daniels makes the final choice. Voters then decide whether to retain those judges every six years.

Fry's House Enrolled Act 1491 would have moved their selection to nonpartisan elections, with a $10,000 fundraising limit.

The measure gained tremendous support from the House, passing 88 to 3, with all St. Joseph County representatives consenting. In the Senate, the vote was 35 to 15. From St. Joseph County, only state Sen. John Broden dissented.

"It's unfortunate that the governor chose to disregard the will of the legislature, and that is clearly his prerogative," said St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak, a supporter of the bill.

But Fry, the bill's author, said a veto override is still possible.

"It's not over till it's over," Fry said. "We'll see if the Senate Republicans have the stomach to override their own governor."

A simple majority of both houses — 51 in the House and 26 in the Senate — is needed to override the veto.

Whether an override vote will happen is up to the leadership of each chamber. Senate President Pro-Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, and House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, could not be reached by press time.

But regardless, opponents of the measure said Wednesday's veto was a good move by Daniels.

They worry that elections would expose judges to political pressures and influence from campaign contributors, who in many cases could be attorneys appearing before them in court.

They also point to a provision of the bill that would have added three judges to Indiana's appeals court. Doing so was estimated to cost upward of $2 million at a time when state revenues are declining and spending is being cut — another reason Daniels cited for his veto.

The Indiana State Bar Association cited that expense in a meeting with Daniels' staff after the bill's final passage, urging him to veto, said Bill Jonas, president of the organization and a South Bend attorney.

Here is Patrick Guinane's story in the NWI Times:
For once, Lake County won’t be the odd duck.

Gov. Mitch Daniels closed the books Wednesday on the spring legislative session, signing into law a final batch of 23 bills while vetoing an attempt to end judicial merit selection in St. Joseph County.

The Republican governor nixed House Bill 1491, which have would made Lake the only Indiana county that does not elect a majority of its judges. The measure paired House Democrats’ desire to end judicial appointments in St. Joseph County with a Senate Republican push to give Daniels three new appellate court appointments.

“The current method of selecting judges for the St. Joseph Superior Court has prevailed successfully for 35 years. It is a model to be emulated, not discarded,” Daniels said in a statement.

“The addition of another panel to the Court of Appeals at $2 million per year is difficult to justify in today’s challenging fiscal environment,” Daniels continued. “Moreover, if I were to sign a bill linking these two proposals, it could contribute to public cynicism by creating the appearance that my acquiescence was purchased with more appointments. Whatever the merits of expanding the Court of Appeals may be, they should be considered alone.”

The legislation had called for the new Court of Appeals panel to be created in July 2011, meaning the expansion would not have required an appropriation in the next state budget.

Meanwhile, judicial merit selection was pitched as a potential model for the state when it was introduced in the 1970s. But House Speaker, D-South Bend, decried it as a Republican effort to sap power from Democratic strongholds.

In Lake and St. Joseph counties judicial candidates are vetted by a panel of lawyers and lay people, appointed by the governor and face voters every six years in nonpartisan retention elections. Judges there say the system helps insulate them from politics.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 14, 2009 12:52 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts