I think this is the only contested District Court race in either Hennepin County or Ramsey County. (There is a contested race for the Supreme Court, which I wrote about here.) On the ballot:
Pat Diamond (incumbent)
Ngozi Akubuike
The two candidates on the ballot:
DeAnne Hilgers (Incumbent)
Thomas Andrew Handley Jr.
There are two candidates on the ballot:
Robyn Ann Millenacker (Incumbent)
Marcus L. Almon
Here, have a cat picture, so that later I can put in a screen shot and it won’t take over as the “featured image.”
Seriously, that’s the only reason.
Revisiting the open seat now that we are down to two candidates. Here’s what I wrote back in August. Two candidates were eliminated in the primary.
On the ballot in November:
Oh good, an easy one.
Here’s who’s running:
Elena L. Ostby (Incumbent)
Seamus R. Mahoney
Calandra Revering
I see no particular reason to get rid of Ostby. Mahoney’s web page is his attorney web site, with nothing explaining his interest in or qualifications for a judgeship. Calandra Revering apparently had her license to practice law suspended at some point. (You can read a little bit more about her here.)
Anyway, I’m going to vote for Ostby.
There are three people running:
G. Tony Atwal (incumbent)
Elliott Nickell
P. Paul Yang
There’s basically one question in this race, or maybe two.
(Editing to add: turns out there are some additional questions!)
“Court 11” seems to refer to the seat that’s open, but I can’t figure out which judge is in it right now. That person is apparently not running for re-election as the seat seems to be wide open. There are four people running, two of whom will progress to the November ballot.
I just want to note for the record that I think this is a bad way to choose a judge. Even more than any other elective seat, I’m not in a good position to decide whether someone’s going to be good at the job. The Committee on Judicial Selection, which you apply to and which recommends appointments to the governor, and which was handling two seats this year, seems genuinely more qualified to me. (I have no idea why this seat wasn’t filled that way!)
(I’d also prefer retention elections to the system we’ve got now. In a retention election, you vote “should we keep this person, Y/N” when their term expires, and if people vote N, a new person gets appointed.)
The vast majority of what judges do isn’t partisan. “Did this person steal a car?” is not a particularly political question. But of course, politics leak in in all sorts of ways. I don’t want a judge who’s going to discriminate against a gay parent in a child custody case. I don’t want a judge who doesn’t take violence against women seriously. I don’t want a judge who assumes that police officers are always telling the truth. Etc.
Anyway — somewhat frustratingly, I’m going to note — all four of the candidates for this open seat appear to be basically fine and decent people who’d probably be good judges. Here they are:
Scott Michael Flaherty
Adam Yang
Jeffry Martin
Gregory J. Egan IV
Will Tell Stories For Food 