A guy is checking in to a swank hunting resort. The clerk at the desk asks him if he will be using any of their dogs.

“What are my options?”, asks the guest.

“Well we have some excellent dogs that cost $100 a day. But maybe you want something really special.”

“Yes, I want the best you have.”

“Then you want the dog named Lawyer. Our very best and a bargain at $2,000 per day. He not only will find your bird and flush it out, after he retrieves it he will bring it to your cabin, clean it and cook it for you.”

“That’s impossible.”

“No really, he does all that. If you are in anyway dissatisfied, you need not pay.”

So the guest agrees to pay for Lawyer and is not at all dissatisfied. The dog performs exactly as promised and the hunter has the best trip of his life.

The ballot position lottery.

Tomorrow anxious candidates will gather in Harrisburg and city hall for what may be the single most important event of their campaigns, the ballot position lottery. In my race for common pleas court judge there are twenty-seven candidates for four positions. Candidates can and do win from the bottom of the ballot but to do that requires almost universal support in every ward. It is the rare candidate who can boast such strength. Conversely, a position at the top of the ballot can turn a weak candidate into a front runner. It is very disheartening to realize that my almost thirty years of legal experience and the five years I have spent building political support for my candidacy can be trumped by the fortuitous pulling of a number out of a hat.

By way of disclosure, I was a candidate for Common Pleas Court Judge in the 2005 democratic primary and expect to run again in the upcoming election. In '05 there were 24 candidates for 8 positions and I drew ballot position number 23. I finished in twelfth place. Ballot position hurt but it wasn't necessarily fatal. Judge Leon Tucker drew number 24 and he finished in the top eight. There were many other factors at work and I hope to write about them in future posts if this proves to be a topic of interest to readers of this site. (By the way, many thanks to Daniel and Ray for providing this wonderful forum.)

After hearing of my experience, most people assume that I would favor a system of merit selection for judges. On the contrary, I think it would be a huge mistake to scrap the election process. I say, let’s reform the current system and not throw the baby out with the bath water.