Kansas judicial elections, 2012

Judicial Elections
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Elections, 2012
Judicial election dates

The Kansas judicial elections consisted of a primary on August 7th and general election on November 6th.^[1]

Supreme Court[edit]

Judge	Incumbency	Division	Retention vote	Retention Vote %
MoritzNancy Moritz   A	Yes		666,228	70.9%A

Court of Appeals[edit]

Judge	Incumbency	Division	Retention vote	Retention Vote %
BrunsDavid E. Bruns   A	Yes		658,691	75%A
AtchesonG. Gordon Atcheson   A	Yes		617,265	71%A
PierronJoseph Pierron   A	Yes		654,838	74%A
Arnold-BurgerKaren Arnold-Burger   A	Yes		625,724	71%A
LebenSteve Leben   A	Yes		639,388	72%A

District Courts[edit]

For District Court judicial elections, please visit: Kansas judicial elections, 2012 - District Court

In the News[edit]

Georgia group slams Kansas candidate[edit]

As featured in JP Election Brief: Campaign ads and voter education on October 25, 2012.

A surprisingly competitive situation regularly reserved for Supreme Court elections is developing in Sedgwick County, Kansas as an out-of-state political action group attacks Judge Richard T. Ballinger of the 18th Judicial District. Georgia-based Super PAC Safe Nation issued a radio ad opposing the candidacy of Judge Ballinger, who is facing Zoe Newton in the upcoming election.

The ad points out that Ballinger was issued a cease-and-desist order in 2006 for encouraging another judge to have a relationship with an employee. It also advises listeners to "vote Zoe Newton".^[2] The Ballinger campaign had previously released an ad pointing out Newton's lower scores on a local bar association survey.

Interestingly enough, Newton criticized the Safe Nation ad in her favor, writing, "I firmly believe that certain campaign practices, such as negative ads, are unseemly in the context of a judicial race…My campaign is not responsible for this ad, nor do I condone or approve of it."^[2]

Ballinger responded by telling his supporters, "If we don’t beat back this PAC now, judicial elections in Wichita will be changed forever."^[2] The intentions of Safe Nation were unknown.

Kansas 2012 retention elections[edit]

As featured in JP Election Brief: 2012 Retention Elections on July 5, 2012.

Kansas will have some substantial ballots, with 79 judicial retention elections this year.

• Eric Rosen is the only justice of the Kansas Supreme Court facing retention.
• In the Court of Appeals, six judges seek retention: Karen Arnold-Burger, G. Gordon Atcheson, David E. Bruns, Richard Greene, Steve Leben, and Joseph Pierron.^[3][4]

External links[edit]

• Kansas Secretary of State, 2012 Election Fact Sheet

Footnotes[edit]

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