Local Bar Association Survey Rates Eight Judicial Candidates. Candidates Say, “The poll is very political…”

THERE ARE TWO vacant seats on the Washtenaw County Trial Court that voters will decide during the August 5 primary election. The two non-partisan candidates who collect the most votes in the primary will face each other in the November 5 general election. One of the seats was formerly held by retired Judge Nancy Francis and the other is occupied by Judge Donald Shelton, who is stepping down September 6.

In total, there are eight candidates campaigning, five for a probate court opening and three for a circuit court opening. The local Washtenaw County Bar Association sent a survey out to the group’s 735 members. The survey asked recipients to rate the candidates according to four general criteria:

• technical qualifications
• work capacity
• interpersonal skills
• character traits

Those four categories were then defined more specifically.:

• technical qualifications included: Legal ability, legal knowledge, legal experience, quality of pleadings/opinions;
• work capacity included: Diligence, industry, punctuality, promptness, trial management, organizational skills, settlement skills;
• interpersonal skills included: Courtesy, attentiveness, proper demeanor, patience, consideration, respect for parties, lawyers and witnesses, sense of humor;
• character traits included: Judicial temperament, integrity, impartiality, race, ethnic and economic independence, decisiveness, firmness, intellectual honesty.

Of the 735 Bar Association members queried, 25 percent responded, or 183 individuals.  However, on average, about 40 percent of respondents said they did not know who individual candidates were.

Kyeena Slater, Executive Director of the Washtenaw County Bar Association, said the organization surveys members whenever there is a contested judicial race. The last contested elections were in 2012.

It is because 183 individuals responded to the local Bar Association’s survey that probate court candidate Jane Bassett believes that the survey could have been easily gamed.

“Only 25 percent of the people surveyed responded,” said Bassett, “I think there were candidates who went out and lobbied their friends and relatives.”

While Jane Bassett denies having done that herself, she did participate in the survey rating both herself and her opponents.

“I tried to be objective,” she said.

The results of the survey with respect to Bassett and her four opponents painted an interesting picture of Julia B. Owdziej, who applied for the vacancy and was appointed on June 4 by Gov. Rick Snyder.

While Judge Owdziej scored well in technical qualifications and work capacity, almost 42 percent of respondents said her interpersonal skills (courtesy, attentiveness, proper demeanor, patience, consideration, respect for parties, lawyers and witnesses, sense of humor) were average or below average. Similarly, just 35 percent of respondents judged Gov. Snyder’s appointee as having excellent character traits (judicial temperament, integrity, impartiality, race, ethnic and economic independence, decisiveness, firmness, intellectual honesty).

More survey respondents judged Tracy Van den Bergh, a candidate for the probate seat,  “excellent” in all of the categories than any of the other four candidates, including newbie incumbent, Judge Owdziej.

The survey looking at the three circuit court candidates ended up a horse race between two of the three candidates: Veronique Liem and Patrick Conlin. Conlin has the endorsement of Judge Donald Shelton. However, after the publication of an article in The Ann magazine which was critical of both Shelton and the Washtenaw Trial Court, insiders say it’s difficult to predict if the endorsement will help or hurt Conlin’s chances.

The article, published in the June 2014 issue of the local magazine, and written by Tom Clynes and David Alexander, included a quote from a source who said, “Shelton is a walking case for why there should be term limits for judges.”

The piece allegedly catches Chief Judge David Swartz (who is also supporting Patrick Conlin) in a lie concerning his knowledge of “inappropriate behavior” and “perceived biases” in the courtroom of a temporarily appointed Trial Court judge named Charles Nelson.

In the Bar Association survey, Conlin’s scores for interpersonal skills (courtesy, attentiveness, proper demeanor, patience, consideration, respect for parties, lawyers and witnesses, sense of humor) were high—88 percent of respondents rated him at above average or excellent. That his score was so high, almost over-shadows Veronique Liem’s 74 percent score in the same category.

Among all the eight candidates for judgeships, Patrick Conlin scored the highest in the character traits category (judicial temperament, integrity, impartiality, race, ethnic and economic independence, decisiveness, firmness, intellectual honesty)—80 percent of his colleagues rated him above average or excellent. Again, Conlin’s high marks make Veronique’s Liem’s 70 percent rating almost pale in comparison. Probate judge candidate Van den Bergh scored 70 percent in this category, as well.

While attorney and probate judge candidate Jane Bassett suggests “throwing out” the below average and excellent scores and focusing, instead, on the average to above average scores (scoring levels where she out-performed her four opponents), one candidate’s scores stand out in a different—perhaps significant way—that may support Bassett’s suggestion the survey was gamed.

Trial Court candidate Michael Woodyard’s Washtenaw County legal colleagues don’t know him. Of the 181 individuals who responded to the survey, 80 percent said they didn’t know Woodyard.

Of those who did respond (36 individuals), the marks were abnormally low as compared to the low marks of the other seven judicial candidates. For instance, Woodyard received no “excellent” ratings in three out of the four categories (technical qualifications, work capacity and character traits).

One judicial candidate suggested Woodyard is still suffering fallout from his 2012 run against Judge Timothy Connors. During that acrimonious campaign, Woodyard—an assistant prosecutor in Wayne County—was pressured to drop out of the race and was allegedly sent a threatening letter. Judge Connors raised over $100,000, mostly from Ann Arbor attorneys. Mike Woodyard raised $7,266 and captured 23 percent of the vote.

“This was by no means a scientific survey,” said Jane Bassett with a chuckle.

“This survey is politics,” said another of the candidates. “Pure and simple.”

Connie Jones, who, like Jane Bassett, is running for the probate court seat held by Judge Owdziej, said this when asked if she thought the survey accurately reflected her skills and temperament:

“I guess it accurately reflects the number of people who responded to it,” she said, “I don’t exactly know what it reflects, and it leads to people asking, ‘Who filled it out?’”

Like Bassett, Connie Jones rated herself and her opponents.

“I can give myself an honest evaluation,” she said.

Jones also applied to the Governor’s office to fill the vacant seat.

“Five people applied for Judge Francis’s seat,” she said. “I got two rounds of interviews: one with the State Bar and the other with the Governor’s office.”

Connie Jones believes the poll is “very political” She added: “It’s all just curious. What can I say? So much of politics is to confuse the voters.”