California judicial elections, 2014

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Judicial elections
California judicial elections, 2014
Overview
Total candidates: 608
Primary candidates: 111
General election candidates: 520
Incumbency
Incumbents: 509
Incumbent success rate: 99%
Competition - general election
Percent of candidates in contested races: 4%
Percent uncontested: 86%
Percent retention: 10%
Judicial Elections
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The key races amongst many California judicial elections in 2014 were the contested superior court races. Though not all voters in the state got to choose between two or more judicial candidates, those who live in the following counties were able to shape their trial courts: Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Imperial, Los Angeles, Monterey, Nevada, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Yolo and Yuba.

Of the 470 superior court judges who ran for re-election in the 2014 general election, 450 were unopposed and did not appear on the ballot. There were 10 contested races in which two incumbents were defeated.

Also in 2014, voters had the opportunity to choose whether or not to retain certain justices of the supreme court and the courts of appeal. Such retention elections only occur every four years.

See: California elections summary, 2014.

In addition to candidate lists, this page includes information about how the state's judicial elections work, as well as articles about noteworthy news in races across the state.

Election dates[edit]

  • March 7: Filing deadline for superior court candidates
  • June 3: Primary
  • August 15: Filing deadline for appellate court justices seeking retention
  • November 4: General election[1][2]

General election: Contested races[edit]

(I) denotes incumbent

Calaveras County Superior Court, Dept. 1

Calaveras County Superior Court, Dept. 2

Fresno County Superior Court, Office 15

Los Angeles County Superior Court, Office 61

Los Angeles County Superior Court, Office 87

Nevada County Superior Court, Seat 1

Orange County Superior Court, Office 14

San Diego County Superior Court, Office 25

San Francisco County Superior Court, Office 20

Santa Clara County Superior Court, Office 24

General election: Retentions[edit]

Justices of the appellate courts face retention every four years.[2]

Supreme court[edit]

Retention

JudgeElection Vote
WerdegarKathryn Mickle Werdegar72.6% ApprovedA
CuéllarMariano-Florentino Cuéllar67.7% ApprovedA
LiuGoodwin Liu67.1% ApprovedA

Justice Werdegar, 78, was retained along with Justice Liu, who was 44 at the time of the election. Liu was appointed in 2011 and won his first full term in 2014.[3][4]

Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar was appointed to the court by Governor Jerry Brown in July 2014, and was retained to a full term in November 2014.[5]

Courts of appeal[edit]

First District Court of Appeal[edit]

Retention

JudgeElection Vote
KlineAnthony Kline75.3% ApprovedA
PollakStuart Pollak74.5% ApprovedA
JenkinsMartin J. Jenkins77.6% ApprovedA
BankeKathleen M. Banke78.8% ApprovedA
HumesJames M. Humes75.4% ApprovedA
StewartTherese M. Stewart77.4% ApprovedA
BruiniersTerence L. Bruiniers75.2% ApprovedA
RuvoloIgnazio Ruvolo73.9% ApprovedA
SimonsMark Simons77.9% ApprovedA

Second District Court of Appeal[edit]

Retention

JudgeElection Vote
CollinsAudrey Collins71.0% ApprovedA
HoffstadtBrian M. Hoffstadt67.8% ApprovedA
JohnsonJeffrey W. Johnson75.8% ApprovedA
EdmonLee Edmon70.6% ApprovedA
ManellaNora Manella75.3% ApprovedA
TurnerPaul Turner (California)
YeganKenneth Yegan73.3% ApprovedA
PerlussDennis Perluss67.9% ApprovedA
RubinLaurence Rubin70.2% ApprovedA
FlierMadeleine Flier69.9% ApprovedA
RothschildFrances Rothschild70.7% ApprovedA

Third District Court of Appeal[edit]

Retention

JudgeElection Vote
RayeVance Raye69.9% ApprovedA
HochAndrea L. Hoch70.4% ApprovedA
RennerJonathan Renner64.7% ApprovedA
Murray, Jr.William J. Murray, Jr.70.7% ApprovedA
MauroLouis R. Mauro66.3% ApprovedA
DuarteElena J. Duarte66.4% ApprovedA
RobieRonald Robie68.6% ApprovedA

Fourth District Court of Appeal[edit]

Retention

JudgeElection Vote
FybelRichard Fybel63.9% ApprovedA
AronsonRichard Aronson72.9% ApprovedA
O'RourkeTerry O'Rourke74.6% ApprovedA
NaresGilbert Nares71.4% ApprovedA
O'LearyKathleen O'Leary69.9% ApprovedA
McIntyreJames McIntyre75.4% ApprovedA
RylaarsdamWilliam Rylaarsdam70.0% ApprovedA
ThompsonDavid A. Thompson75.3% ApprovedA
McDonaldAlex McDonald75.3% ApprovedA
HollenhorstThomas Hollenhorst73.7% ApprovedA

Fifth District Court of Appeal[edit]

Retention

JudgeElection Vote
Peña Jr.Rosendo Peña, Jr.55.8% ApprovedA
Franson Jr.Donald R. Franson, Jr.68.5% ApprovedA
CornellDennis Cornell67.0% ApprovedA
GomesGene Gomes60.4% ApprovedA
KaneStephen Kane69.8% ApprovedA

Sixth District Court of Appeal[edit]

Retention

JudgeElection Vote
MárquezMiguel Márquez72.0% ApprovedA
GroverAdrienne M. Grover76.9% ApprovedA
PremoEugene Premo73.5% ApprovedA
EliaFranklin Elia75.1% ApprovedA
Bamattre-ManoukianPatricia Bamattre-Manoukian74.2% ApprovedA

General election: Uncontested[edit]

If a superior court judge runs unopposed for re-election, his or her name does not appear on the ballot and he or she is automatically re-elected following the general election.[6]

The following candidates were unopposed in 2014.

Alameda County Superior Court

Alpine County Superior Court

Butte County Superior Court

Contra Costa County Superior Court

Del Norte County Superior Court

El Dorado County Superior Court

Fresno County Superior Court

Kern County Superior Court

Kings County Superior Court

Los Angeles County Superior Court

Madera County Superior Court

Marin County Superior Court

Mendocino County Superior Court

Merced County Superior Court

Monterey County Superior Court

Napa County Superior Court

Placer County Superior Court

Riverside County Superior Court

Sacramento County Superior Court

San Bernardino County Superior Court

San Diego County Superior Court

San Francisco County Superior Court

San Joaquin County Superior Court

San Luis Obispo County Superior Court

San Mateo County Superior Court

Santa Barbara County Superior Court

Santa Clara County Superior Court

Santa Cruz County Superior Court

Shasta County Superior Court

Siskiyou County Superior Court

Solano County Superior Court

Stanislaus County Superior Court

Tuolumne County Superior Court

Ventura County Superior Court

Yolo County Superior Court

Yuba County Superior Court

Primary[edit]

For candidate lists and results from the judicial primary on June 3, 2014, please see: California primary elections, 2014.

Process[edit]

Retention[edit]

Justices of the California Supreme Court and California Courts of Appeal must run for retention in the first gubernatorial election after they are appointed and then every 12 years, when their terms expire, in November. In these elections, justices do not compete against another candidate. Instead, voters are given a "yes" or "no" choice as to whether to keep the justice in office for another term. The justice must receive a majority of "yes" votes to remain in office. If a justice is not retained, the governor appoints a replacement who must run for retention in the next gubernatorial election following their appointment.[7][2]

Justices are typically retained. Since the state started its system of retention elections in 1934, the only year that any supreme court justice was not retained was 1986. That year, three justices were ousted from the bench due to ruling against the death penalty.[8][9] In 2010, all of the justices who faced retention were retained. Supreme court justices were retained by an average of 66.8% of votes, while justices of the intermediate appellate courts were retained by an average of 71.0% of the votes.

See: California judicial elections for more details.

Nonpartisan elections[edit]

Superior court judges run in nonpartisan elections and participate in primaries. They must run for re-election every six years, if they wish to continue serving on the court. (Appointed judges are required to run once the term they were appointed to fill expires.)

When running for re-election, a sitting judge may face one or more opponents. Write-in candidates may also file to run against an incumbent within 10 days after the filing deadline passes, if they are able to secure enough signatures, generally between 100 and 600, depending on the number of registered voters in the county. In both cases, the incumbent's name appears on the general election ballot along with an option to vote for a write-in candidate.[6] If one candidate receives over 50% of the votes in the primary, he or she wins the seat without having to run in the general election. If no candidate receives over 50% of the primary votes, the top two vote-getters, for a single seat in the primary, advance to the general election.[10]

If a superior court judge runs unopposed for re-election, his or her name does not appear on the ballot in either the primary or general election, and the judge is automatically re-elected following the general election.[6]

Fees[edit]

The fees for filing declarations of candidacy:

In lieu of paying this filing fee, candidates may submit signatures. The number of signatures that must be submitted vary by court and county.

  • Justices of the supreme court must submit 10,000 signatures.
  • Judges of the courts of appeal must submit 8,299 signatures.
  • The number of signatures required for candidates for the superior courts is 7,252 (four signatures for every dollar of the filing fee) or 10-20 percent of the total registered voters in the county--whichever is less. The 10 percent applies to counties with more than 2,000 registered voters, while the 20 percent applies to counties with fewer than 2,000 registered voters.[11]

Noteworthy events[edit]

The following articles were current as of the dates listed.

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. California Secretary of State, "Key Dates and Deadlines," 2014
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named appellate
  3. Los Angeles Times, "California Supreme Court headed for change," April 4, 2014
  4. Stanford Law School, "Justice Goodwin Liu," accessed April 22, 2014
  5. California Secretary of State Voter Guide, "Justices of the Supreme Court," accessed August 26, 2014
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 California Elections Code, "Section 8203," accessed April 22, 2014
  7. California Secretary of State, "Justices of the Supreme Court," accessed June 1, 2014
  8. Santa Clara Law Review (Volume 28, No. 2), "California Judicial Retention Elections," by Gerald F. Uelmen, 1988
  9. American Judicature Society, "Judicial Selection in the States: California", archived October 2, 2014
  10. California Elections Code, "Section 8140-8150," accessed April 22, 2014
  11. 11.0 11.1 California Elections Code, "Section 8100-8107," accessed April 22, 2014
  12. California Secretary of State, "Section 3: Candidate Filing Information for the 2014 primary election," accessed April 22, 2014
  13. National Center for State Courts, "Judicial Salary Tracker," accessed April 21, 2014
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 Los Angeles Dragnet, "Historic Victories in Primary Election," June 4, 2014
  15. Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/Clerk, "Superior Court Primary Election Results," June 4, 2014
  16. Commission on Government Reform – U.S. House of Representatives, "Summaries of State Election Procedures," November 2002
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 Tahoe Daily Tribune, "Election 2014: Nevada County Judicial candidates face crowded field, May 23, 2014
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 Tahoe Daily Tribune, "Election 2014: 5 vie for Nevada Co. Superior Court Judge Seat 1," May 23, 2014
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 KPBS, "San Diego Judicial Candidate Says Rights Violated When Billboards Removed," May 13, 2014
  21. Metropolitan News-Enterprise, "San Diego judge publicly censured over 'wet-reckless' plea," September 17, 2008, accessed February 27, 2014
  22. San Diego County Bar Association, "2014 San Diego Judge Elections: Judicial Candidate Ratings," accessed May 14, 2014
  23. 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 San Diego Free Press, "Clear Channel Responds to Political Pressure, Quashes Billboard Ads for Judicial Candidate," May 12, 2014
  24. 24.0 24.1 The Fresno Bee, "Fresno County Judge Robert Oliver retiring next year," January 27, 2014
  25. Fresno State News, "Robert H. Oliver is Fresno State Foundation Service Award recipient," April 22, 2010
  26. Cline for Judge, "Positions," accessed June 1, 2014
  27. Lisa Gamoian for judge 2014, "About Lisa," accessed June 1, 2014
  28. Hill 4 Judge, "About," accessed June 1, 2014
  29. Elect Steven Smith for Judge, "Home," accessed June 1, 2014
  30. Charles Magill judge, "Biography of Charles Magill," accessed June 1, 2014
  31. 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 Daily Democrat, "Yolo judicial candidates have wide range of experience," April 6, 2014 (Part 1)
  32. 32.0 32.1 32.2 Daily Democrat, "Yolo judicial candidates have wide range of experience," April 6, 2014 (Part 2)
  33. 33.0 33.1 33.2 San Jose Mercury News, "Bar association gives judge cold shoulder," March 25, 2014
  34. 34.0 34.1 Santa Clara County Bar Association, "Santa Clara County Bar Association Endorses Dennis Lempert and Matt Harris in Contested Superior Court Seats," March 24, 2014
  35. 35.0 35.1 San Jose Mercury News, "Rookie San Jose judge still struggles on the job, sources say," February 1, 2014
  36. Santa Clara County Bar Association, "Judicial Survey Results - Diane Ritchie," 2011
  37. San Jose Mercury News, "Santa Clara County: First sitting judge to face competition in re-election," February 4, 2014


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