By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX -- A total of 17 judges and attorneys have put in their bid to be the first Supreme Court justice appointed by Gov. Katie Hobbs.
But if precedent is any indicator, whoever the governor picks to replace Republican Justice Robert Brutinel, who is retiring, will be a Democrat like her. And that effectively would knock four of the applicants out of the running even if any of them are on the final list of nominees eventually submitted to Hobbs by the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments.
Still, at least one of their names will have to be on that final list: The Arizona Constitution forbids the commission from submitting a list to the governor solely with members of only one political party. The commission also must give her at least three names from which to choose, though there is no maximum number of nominees.
And there's something else.
Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, Hobbs cannot simply choose whoever she wants. The Arizona Constitution requires her to make her pick from the list submitted by the commission.
But there's a flip side to this.
Unlike presidential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, whoever she eventually taps would not have to survive confirmation hearings in the Republican-controlled state Senate.
Of particular note is that whoever isn't selected by the governor this time may have two other chances.
Among the candidates on the Nov. 5 ballot are current Supreme Court justices Clint Bolick and Kathryn King, both appointees of former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.
Under the constitutional system of gubernatorial picks, they need voter approval to get a new six-year term. And both have been targeted for defeat by various groups, including those unhappy that the pair were among the four justices who earlier this year concluded the state could enforce an 1864 law which made abortion illegal except to save the life of the mother.
There is, however, another complicating factor.
What's also on the ballot is Proposition 137.
Put there by Republican lawmakers, it would change the current system of judicial elections to say that only those judges who had issues, like a personal bankruptcy, felony conviction or being found by the Commission on Judicial Performance Review, would have to face voters on a regular basis. The rest would be allowed to continue to serve without fear of losing an election until mandatory retirement age of 70.
But lawmakers also crafted that measure to be retroactive to before Tuesday's election: If approved, it would negate any vote to remove Bolick, King -- or any other judge on the ballot. And for that reason, some of the same foes of retaining the pair on the bench also are urging Arizonans to reject the measure.
There is nothing that requires Hobbs to select a Democrat.
But since the current system of gubernatorial appointments was established by voters in 1974, there have been only two exceptions. And there were reasons behind both.
The first was the choice of Democrat Ruth McGregor by Republican Gov. Jane Hull in 1998.
McGregor, however, came with a pedigree of sorts that allowed Hull, herself a moderate Republican, to make that pick. She had clerked for -- and was endorsed by -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican who before becoming the first woman appointed to the nation's high court was the first female Senate majority leader in Arizona and then a judge on the state Court of Appeals.
The other was actually less of an exception to the rule: the choice of Bolick to the Supreme Court in 2016 by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.
Strictly speaking Bolick was registered as a political independent.
But he came directly from the Goldwater Institute and had a long history of filing suit -- and sometimes winning -- against government agencies at all levels, putting the self-described ``activist'' in lock-step with many of the governor's views.
The commission will meet at the Arizona Supreme Court building on Nov. 22 to review the applications and hear comments. Written comments also can be submitted at jnc@courts.az.gov.
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The applicants:
- Sheena Chiang, an attorney in private practice who said she has always been a Democrat.
- Ann Ching who is a professor at the Arizona State University College of Law. She said she has been a Democrat except for first registering as a Libertarian in college.
- Janette Corral, an independent turned Democrat turned independent turned Democrat in 2016. She is a judge on the Maricopa County Superior Court.
- Maria Elena Cruz who is a judge on the state Court of Appeals. She is a Democrat.
- Nicole Davis, deputy director of the Department of Economic Security and the agency's general counsel. She is a political independent.
- Monica Bellapravalu Edelstein, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge who is a Democrat.
- Andrew Gaona who is a Democrat in private practice. He also represented Hobbs in some of the legal battles following the 2022 election as well as more recent court fights with both the head of the Arizona Republican Party and with Senate Republicans over confirmation of her agency directors.
- Andrew Jacobs on the Arizona Court of Appeals who is a Democrat.
- Shalanda Looney a private attorney who initially was a Democrat, registered as a Republican for a year last year and is now again a Democrat.
- Doreen McPaul a Democrat who is the assistant legislative attorney for the Tohono O'odham Nation.
- Robert McWhirter a self-employed attorney and Democrat.
- Regina Nassen, principal assistant attorney for the city of Tucson. Initially a political independent, she registered as a Democrat for 14 years before becoming an independent again in 2014.
- Alexander Samuels, an assistant state attorney general who is a Democrat.
- Amy Sells, a Democrat working for a Phoenix law firm.
- Mikel Steinfeld who supervises appellate attorneys in the Maricopa County Public Defender's Office. He is a Democrat.
- Barry Stratford a partner in a Phoenix law firm. He was a Republican for 13 years, became an independent for four years, says he registered as a Democrat in 2020 to vote in that party's presidential preference primary and is now again a political independent.
- William Wingard, who went from Republican to Democrat and finally to independent in 2011. He is a Maricopa County Superior Court judge.
