2 appeals court judges seeking justice position
Rivals for state’s highest bench pledge to work hard, be fair
Two Arkansas Court of Appeals judges are vying to replace retiring Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Jim Gunter in this month’s nonpartisan judicial elections.
Whoever takes Gunter’s place — Josephine “Jo” Hart or Raymond Abramson — will be the 15th person to hold the Position 4 justice post since it was created in 1889 when the state’s population topped 1 million, and the General Assembly increased the court from three to five justices. The high court was expanded to its current complement of seven justices 36 years later in 1925.
The Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of Arkansas statutory and constitutional law and establishes the evidentiary and procedural rules under which the state’s courts operate. The race between Hart, 68, and Abramson, 60, is the only contested statewide race to be decided by voters this month. The primary election is May 22. Early voting runs until May 21.
Hart was first elected to the appeals court in 1999 — its 12 members are elected from seven voting districts — and she has been re-elected twice to the court’s District 2, Position 1 judgeship, representing 18 counties: Baxter, Boone, Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Lawrence, Marion, Newton, Pope, Randolph, Searcy, Sharp, Stone and Van Buren.
She was most recently reelected to an eight-year term in 2010 when she fended off a challenge by Circuit Judge Rhonda Wood of Conway by capturing about 52 percent of the vote.
Abramson, the District 1, Position 2 judge, was appointed by Gov. Mike Beebe to replace D. Price Marshall Jr., who had been appointed by President Barack Obama to a federal judgeship. The district encompasses Clay, Greene, Craighead, Poinsett, Mississippi, Cross, Crittenden, Woodruff, White, Prairie, Lonoke and Monroe counties. As an appointee, he’s barred from seeking election to the seat. The Supreme Court job pays $145,204 annually, while appeals judges earn $140,732.
Both candidates have websites. Hart’s is judgehart.com and Abramson’s is abramsonforsupremecourt.com.
Both have roots in rural Arkansas — Hart is from Mountain View while Abramson is from Holly Grove — and they both say earning a living in a small town has given them a depth of experience practicing criminal, family, tax and corporate law that most bigcity lawyers don’t get.
“You don’t have the convenience of specializing,” Hart said. “You have to work doubly hard. You get a wide variety and you get a depth of knowledge because your success depends on how well you know the law.”
Hart practiced for 26 years before being elected to the appeals court. A military lawyer, she retired from the Army Reserve as a colonel in the judge advocate general corps. She is a former Supreme Court clerk and has served as a special justice on the high court.
Describing his 34 years as an attorney, Abramson compared small-town practice to working in an emergency room — “Whatever comes in the door, you treat it.” He
also spent 30 years as Monroe County public defender and has death-penalty certification.
“Seeing the law from all of those different perspectives has given me good understanding into how the law in Arkansas is applied,” Abramson said.
Both candidates say they are committed to fairness and integrity on the bench.
“I want to make sure every Arkansan is on a level playing field when they step into that courtroom,” Abramson said.
The law must be applied equitably, Hart said.
“I work diligently to ensure ... the rule of law applies,” she said. “The rule of law means the rules are the same whether he’s a king or a servant.”
Both point to experience. Hart, who’s worked on more than 3,000 appeals during her 13-year tenure on the court, said she’s a “no-nonsense” judge and the most experienced candidate while Abramson says voters should elect to the high court a candidate like him, someone who brings a working lawyer’s viewpoint.
“I bring a fresher perspective,” he said. “I was very actively participating in the court system. I think I am closer to the legal community ... and the people in the state.”
The outcome of the race also will answer the question of whether the better-financed candidate can beat the one who gets to list credentials on the ballot.
According to the most recent campaign-finance reports, Abramson has raised much more money than Hart, reporting $233,165 in contributions as of March, about 23 times the $10,800 reported by Hart. Abramson’s campaign had a seven-month head start. He announced his intentions to seek the high court in May 2011, while Hart did not enter the race until January.
Hart said she hadn’t considered the high-court seat earlier because she’d been focused on taking care of her mother, Leola Linker. She said she couldn’t think about much more than caring for her mother until Linker died at age 96. Hart said she decided to enter the race in part because she doesn’t believe a Supreme Court candidate should run unopposed.
Hart will be listed on the ballot as a court of appeals judge while Abramson, despite his gubernatorial appointment to the court, won’t be allowed to use the title. That’s because Arkansas Code 7-10-103 only allows elected judges to use their titles on the ballot. Abramson said the law gives Hart an advantage on the ballot, but he didn’t think it would be insurmountable. He said he’s been focused on working hard to travel the state and meet as many voters as possible.
“You get your message out to the people of the state, what my background is and what kind of person I am ... and the governor thought enough of me to appoint me to the appellate bench,” he said. “I think the people will ... understand.”
Hart said she’s always run “grass-roots” campaigns, preferring to meet voters one on one with a handshake rather than solicit donations. That’s the kind of effort, she said, that got her 16,000 signatures in six weeks on a petition to get her name on the ballot without having to pay a filing fee. Hart’s opponent raised more money than she did in her last race in 2010. Hart collected $46,569 in contributions and won 52 percent of the vote against Wood, who received $63,109 in contributions.
The last two justices elected to the Supreme Court were Court of Appeals judges, who both beat circuit judges. In 2010, Karen Baker beat Circuit Judge Tim Fox in a runoff with 60 percent of the vote, although Fox beat Baker in contributions $389,793 to $169,928.
In that same year, Appeals Judge Courtney Goodson won her race against Circuit Judge John Fogleman with 57.5 percent of the vote. Goodson also raised more money than Fogleman, raising $574,737 to Fogleman’s $328,259.
Before Baker and Goodson were elected in 2010, the last Court of Appeals judge to be elected to the Supreme Court was Donald Corbin, who spent nine years on the appeals bench, three of them as chief judge, before being elected justice in 1990.