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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Ind. Courts - "Bid to pull judge from ballot advances"

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has had a number of articles/editorials/letters on this issue; the ILB picked up the first one in this entry from Aug. 5, headed "A dozen Allen County residents challenge Allen Superior Court Judge Kenneth Scheibenberger’s re-election bid, citing judicial discipline he received in early 2009." That entry explains the issue in detail,.

In brief, Allen County's court statute provides that to qualify for superior court judge, a person ... may not previously have had any disciplinary sanction imposed upon the person by the supreme court disciplinary commission of Indiana. Judge Scheibenberger was disciplined in 2009 by the Supreme Court, on a complaint filed by the Indiana commission on judicial qualifications, They are two different bodies. It is clear to me that the language of the statute doesn't disqualify the judge.

Be that as it may, Niki Kelly of the FWJG reports today:

The effort to remove Allen Superior Court Judge Kenneth Scheibenberger from the fall ballot passed its first administrative hurdle Tuesday when the co-directors of the Indiana Election Division formally agreed to accept the filing.

There had been some question whether the complaint met the appropriate deadline.

Scheibenberger filed his statement of candidacy in January. The deadline to contest that form was Feb. 26, according to the election division.

But there is also an Aug. 20 deadline to contest candidates who have filled vacancies on the ballot.

The Republican and Democratic co-directors of the division decided the law was not clear on which deadline applied, so they let the complaint proceed to the Indiana Election Commission. * * *

The group of citizens who filed the complaint claims Indiana law governing the selection of Allen County Superior Court judges prohibits people from running for election if they have had any Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission action.

The law is unique to Allen and Vanderburgh counties. * * *

“Since we have no precedents in this area to guide us, and since resolving the issue involves more than a straightforward reading of statutory language, we have decided to accept the filing, and furnish the document to the election commission for their consideration and action,” King said.

The matter now moves to the four-member Indiana Election Commission, but no hearing date has been scheduled.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 11, 2010 10:34 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts