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This morning the Press-Register has a good story on the retirement of state Supreme Court Justice Harold See. (The Press-Register is the first traditional media outlet to report the story first broken here at Doc’s Political Parlor three days ago.)
See says there that he intends to serve out his term (which fits with what I had recently heard as the most likely scenario).
I am told by good authority that this comment left elsewhere on the blog is not correct.
If Justice See waits past early November to step down, his appointed successor will get a pass out of the 2008 elections. Newly appointed judges sit for at least a year before having to stand for re-election.
I grant that it would not make much sense. Otherwise, the Governor could theoretically keep a judge’s seat from ever coming up for election by just appointing someone as the elected term was about to expire.
The Atlantic Monthly some time ago published an article that I have mentioned here a few times (first here) and that detailed some of Karl Rove’s connections to Harold See’s campaigns. Including a rare defeat when See ran for chief justice . . .
… Rove lined up support from a majority of the state’s important Republicans behind his candidate, an associate justice named Harold See. Like most of Rove’s clients, See had an enormous financial advantage and ran a brutally negative campaign—but he was nonetheless trounced by Roy Moore, the “Ten Commandments” judge, who succeeded in making the race about religion. This loss may have helped Rove to recognize the power of religion as a political motivator: from the question of gay marriage to organizing churches for Bush, it features prominently in his playbook for the [2004] election.
Later in the article, we learn more about how brutally negative Rove’s campaigns for See could be. It is all worth reading.
As is today’s Press-Register article.
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I am hearing the likely Republican candidates will include: Kelly Wise, Greg Shaw, Sam Welch and Pam Baschab
And just who will be the Roy Moore/Tom Parker slate candidate?
It wouldn’t make sense for the Governor (or the appointee) to want to skip the ‘08 cycle. Republicans always do much better in a presidential year. If it were me, I’d rather run in a presidential year than a state cycle.
And an appointee does not serve a full six year term before comming up for election. If an appointment is made within 18 months (I think that is the treshold, it could be different)of the elected term, then the appointed judge runs in the next cycle after the expired term. So if See stepped down and Riley appointed someone 10 months before See’s term expired, then that person would be on the ballot in 2010 rather than 2008.
As for Rove, the Atlantic article is decidedly one sided. As the years pass the legend grows. People do seem to forget about the skunk ads that ingram ran and the intimations that See was not qualified because he had not passed the bar exam. In fact, it was the nastiness of Ingram’s campaign that seemed to swing many to See’s side in the race.
Although this falls in the category of “moot” given that the incumbent will likely finish his term, consider Section 157 of the “recompiled” Alabama Constitution (which dates from the early-1970s reforms of Howell Heflin):
“A judge, other than a probate judge, appointed to fill a vacancy, shall serve an initial term lasting until the first Monday after the second Tuesday in January following the next general election held after he has completed one year in office.”
I stand by my original comment (except perhaps for my remark about probate judges). If Justice See were to leave office less than a year before the “next general election,” the successor would not complete one year in office before the 2008 general election, thereby bumping the seat to 2010. In that hypothetical situation, the Governor would not get the power to repeatedly reshuffle unless the *new appointee* could be convinced to step down less than one year before 2010.
The courts and the Attorney General have repeatedly interpreted this provision as not allowing an appointed judge to serve beyond her predecessor’s unexpired term. Regardless of whether Justice See leaves early, the seat will be up for election in 2008.
Thanks for the good comments all. What I am hearing is more in line with Flea Bailey’s last comment. It is interesting enough to me that I posted about it here.