Gary Farmer for Broward circuit judge, Group 23
An open seat on Broward’s circuit court bench has drawn a trio of contenders in a race that’s off to a contentious start.
The best overall choice is Gary Farmer, a state senator whose volatile six-year career in Tallahassee ended when his fellow senators drew him out of his coastal Broward district during reapportionment. Worn down by excessive partisanship in the state Capitol, Farmer told the Sun Sentinel editorial board that as a lawmaker, “I can’t help people any more.”
After pondering a run for Congress, Farmer, 58, decided to seek a judgeship and follow in the footsteps of his father, Gary Farmer Sr., who served 20 years on the Fourth District Court of Appeal before retiring in 2010.
Also in this race are Rhoda Sokoloff, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer who’s making her sixth attempt to win a Broward judicial election, and Tania Maria Williams, a lawyer and a hearing officer for the Palm Beach County school district who also worked for the Broward state attorney’s office.
Farmer obviously has a much higher profile, and a highly partisan one. He also has greater breadth of experience as a litigator and policymaker. He was president of the Florida Justice Association, the lobbying arm of the trial bar, and over his three-decade legal career has handled cases ranging from insurance defense to eminent domain to personal injury. He has a thorough understanding of the courts and their relationship to the other two branches of government.
Farmer’s aggressive political style is well-established and a matter of record. As a legislator, he was a liberal Democrat who clashed not only with Republicans but with fellow Democrats, who ousted him as caucus leader near the end of the 2021 session and replaced him with Sen. Lauren Book.
Farmer is not the first Broward legislator to attempt to move from the partisan arena to the nonpartisan bench.
Former Sen. Peter Weinstein and former Reps. Ari Porth and Ken Gottlieb made the transition, as did former Sen. George Tedder many years earlier. It’s tricky terrain, as Farmer demonstrated at a recent meeting of a Democratic club at the Kings Point condominiums in Tamarac.
Farmer said a club member asked how he would adjust from the Senate to a courtroom, and as he recalled it, “I talked about running as a Democrat. I’ve been a Democrat all my life.”
That is hardly a revelation, but Florida’s judicial canon 7C(3) states that judicial candidates “must avoid any conduct suggesting support of or opposition to a
political party.” After Farmer said that, Sokoloff recalled, “Everybody was in shock” — which Farmer disputes.
Naturally, Farmer should have realized that the canons prohibit him from making what could be seen as a partisan appeal, but in our view, it is not a disqualifier as a judicial candidate. Still, it’s conceivable that Farmer could face judicial ethics questions after the election if a complaint is filed.
Sokoloff deserves points for persistence. But she will be 70 next February, and could serve no more than one six-year term before facing the mandatory state retirement age for judges of 75. Considering the strong likelihood that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis could win reelection in November, the fewer judges he gets to appoint in
Broward, the better.
Williams, 43, has been in the legal profession for two decades. She has been a Nova law instructor, a foreclosure lawyer and an entertainment lawyer, and recruited and hired lawyers for the Broward state attorney. In her Sun Sentinel questionnaire, she said she has tried two cases in the past five years.
Running for judge for the first time, Williams moved back to Broward recently after living in Orlando, where her ailing mother lived, and in Palm Beach County.
She qualified to run for the Group 23 seat in April but did not re-register to vote in Broward until June, records show.
Williams also hired as her campaign treasurer Jose Riesco, a Coral Gables public accountant who two years ago was treasurer for Alex Rodriguez, the scheming “ghost” candidate whose bid for a MiamiDade Senate seat confused voters and led to his admission of election fraud.
Riesco has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but any judicial candidate should scrupulously avoid any association with such a figure so close to a major political scandal. If Williams didn’t know, she should have.
Farmer will have to convince people that he has the judicial temperament to be a capable trial court judge. But as a legislator, he showed compassion for others and a keen understanding of the law and pledges to “apply the law as written.”
All Broward voters can cast ballots in this race on Aug. 23. For Broward circuit judge, Group 23, the Sun Sentinel recommends Gary Farmer.