Scramble Begins For A Seat On The Court

 

 

 

BY BUDDY NEVINS

 

 

The early bird gets the worm, but does he get to be a judge?

We will find out next year.

The earliest of early birds running for Circuit Court in 2016 is Thomas Michael Lynch V, son of Circuit Judge Tom Lynch IV.

Lynch has been quietly running for Circuit Court since Dec. 12. He is currently working at Gold and Associates, more commonly known as the Ticket Clinic, a traffic offense and criminal defense firm.

Among those already coughing over cash for Lynch’s campaign are former Judge Jay Spechler and his wife ($2,000) and Republican political insider David DiPietro ($1,000). Lynch has raised $11,950.

The second candidate to open his campaign is Jason Allen Rosner. He filed papers on Feb. 9 for Circuit Court.

Rosner’s name will be familiar to those who follow judicial races. He lost a three-way race for Circuit Court to Judge John Fry in 2010.

With a general law practice heavy on criminal defense, Rosner also has been a civic traffic hearing officer since 2012.

Rosner is running for the seat of Judge Susan Lebow, who is retiring.  Lynch wants to take over the division now held by Judge John Luzzo, also retiring.

Within weeks, other lawyers seeking the bench will join Lynch and Rosner. There could be more than a dozen lawyers running in 2016.

Several female lawyers have been talking to other attorneys about running.  A few lawyers now working for the Public Defenders or State Attorney’s Office also have made noise about trying to a seat.

And the candidates will possibly include former Judge Ian Richards.  He got beaten when he ran for re-election last year.

There is expected to be at least four open seats. There are also several judges who were appointed by Gov. Rick Scott who will face challenges.

So will early birds Lynch and Rosner have an advantage? Probably not.

A lawyer could jump into either of those Circuit Court races as late as Christmas with $400,000 and immediately have an advantage.

Stay tuned.

 

 

 



15 Responses to “Scramble Begins For A Seat On The Court”

  1. rupert says:

    Ian Richards is going to find a Hispanic to run against so he can hide his face and win?

  2. Zig says:

    @rupert

    Blah, blah, blah…..You sound like a “political consultant” with too much time on your hands, desperately trying to drum up business.
    BUDDY HAS MADE THE POINT ON HERE MANY TIMES, BE CAREFUL BEFORE WASTING MONEY ON A SO-CALLED POLITICAL CONSULTANT.

  3. Ha Ha Ha says:

    I love the way we discuss judicial candidates… no need to talk about integrity, justice, constitutional rights, etc., all that needs to be discussed is “HOW MUCH MONEY DOES THE CANDIDATE HAVE?”

    Why don’t we just skip all the cost and hassle of holding elections and just put every judicial seat up on eBay, for sale to the highest bidder?!?

  4. IMHO says:

    Right on Zig. People have been saying Judge Rodriguez is being targeted by Holness and Richards ever since his decision in the Donna Guthrie case.

    It would be my guess that whomever is the consultant to Judge Rodriguez would benefit greatly if the Judge started raising a lot of money and then paid her, his consultant, a good chunk of change when no one ran against him while she, the consultant, could claim she protected the Judge from opposition. Anyone know who Judge Rodriguez uses as a consultant?

  5. Talks like a politician says:

    @ Ha Ha Ha
    Your idea would actually make all elections more efficient. It would save taxpayers money and would most likely result in the same caliber of election winners. For instance, a recent municipal election was won by a perennial candidate via a newcomer helping her pay off back taxes. That is a version of “for sale to the highest bidder”.
    I think your idea is a good one!

  6. I Have All The Answers says:

    With 389k followers on his personal page and 31k followers on his judicial page, Judge Ian Richards should have won. What gives?

  7. The Answer says:

    Probably because buying your followers from random sources when few of them are actually from Broward County (or Florida, or the US) doesn’t actually equate to votes.

  8. Zig says:

    @IMHO
    You sound like the arch-enemy of Judge Rodriguez’s political consultant, if he has one.

  9. Ha Ha Ha says:

    @5 – I was being sarcastic. My point is that radical campaign finance reform is urgently needed in order to reassert democracy.

    What we have now is a gross perversion of democracy (a “plutocracy”). This is certainly not a model for the world to follow; it is a dysfunctional disaster that other countries should work very hard to avoid.

  10. $400k? says:

    Makes you wonder why someone who can plunk down $400k for a CHANCE to win would want a job that pays $140k.

  11. The Guess Who says:

    A few thoughts on Ian:

    1. If he picks the right race, he could get a circuit seat.

    2. His amount of Facebook likes, etc. is totally irrelevant especially since I doubt he leveraged it properly (online ads, etc.)

    3. Ian never cemented his ties to the black community in Broward.

    4. Mike Ahearn ran a good campaign for Judge Robinson. It was lean, but did what it needed to do.

  12. The Guess Who says:

    Oh, and another thing: the smart money is on Lea Krauss and Doreen Inkelees to win election to the Circuit Court. Lynch and Rosner are lightweights and would lose to these highly intelligent and attractive women.

  13. Uncle Tom says:

    Doreen Inkelees hired Alan Jean. Most likely she will be running against a black judge or a black lawyer in an open seat.

    Alan knows running well funded whites against blacks like Richards and McLawrence = CA$H.

    Some way say it didn’t work out for Alan with Kasen but go take a look at the campaign reports, he made big money in the loss.

    Reading the previous articles on Broward Beat you can see there were ties between Jean and David Ramba who did the ECO hit pieces against McLawrence that many believed were race baiting. Go take a look at how much Jean made on the Rosenthal race.

    In judicial and SAO races Alan knows rich white Jews keep him in that 7 series BMW. Satz, Porth, Rosenthal and Kasen.

    One thing for sure, I doubt Alan wouldn’t give the time of day to a well qualified but underfunded, black candidate like Roshawn Banks.

  14. Zig says:

    The only ones commenting on this story are political consultants, everyone knows who they are. No one is going to run against the well entrenched black minority judges.
    Let me reiterate, PAYING A POLITICAL CONSULTANT IS PLAIN DUMB.
    Jonathan kasen paid Allain Jean a lot of money and lost big. Russell Thompson paid Mike Ahearn a lot of money and came in 4th.
    Also Ahearn did practically nothing for Claudia Robinson. But that’s another story.

  15. tell the truth says:

    @Zig
    exactly – well said.