May 13, 2008

Naifeh's Democrats Still Trying to Withhold Your Constitutional Right to Elect Your State Judges

State Rep. Stacey Campfield reports that the House has voted to extend Tennessee's Judicial Selection Commission, even though the state Senate is poised to let the Commission die, which would restore to Tennessee voters their constitutional right to elect their appellate-level judges.

The House voted 64-34 for the legislation, which would extend the Commission and Tennessee's "retention election" system for picking judges for another four years. I haven't seen the roll call vote tally yet, but you can bet that Democrats lined up in favor of continuing to let a commission dominated by lawyers - rather than voters - pick your judges.

Some Democrats were claiming that letting the people elect judges - as the state constitution actually requires - would hurt children. Apparently there are Democrats who believe democracy is bad for children.

Campfield also has a second post with an absolutely on-target statement by state Rep. Mike Bell slamming House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh for complaining that the debate over the Judicial Selection Commission had become partisan.

Associated Press reporters Lucas Johnson and Eric Schelzig detail the dispute between House and Senate leaders over proposed reforms to the Commission - Naifeh wants no changes, Senate Speaker and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey wants changes that lessen the dominance of lawyers on the commission - and also the dispute between Naifeh and Bredesen on whether the Commission's meetings should be open or closed.

Also from that AP article:

Ramsey said there's support among Republicans and the public for directly electing judges instead of using the current system.

Update: Tom Humphrey reports that the demise of legislation to extend the Judicial Selection Commission also puts 53 other state agencies, boards and commissions into a one-year "wind down" period. That means they will "sunset" - go out of business - at the end of June 2009 unless the legislature moves to extend them. I'd expect they'll all get extended, though now that they have not been automatically extended, the public just might see real discussion over whether each and every one of them is necessary.

I can think of more than a few state agencies, commissions, boards and departments that I wouldn't mind seeing go away! Incidentally, unless something changes between now and the end of session, which appears unlikely, the state Department of Revenue will go into "wind down" on July 1.