It isn’t really news to long-term FlashReport readers that the record of "Republican" Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in terms of appointing fellow Republicans to be judges is… well… deplorable.
Yesterday, in the midst of a lot of political goings-on, the Governor’s office issued forth a small stream of press releases announcing more appointments to the bench. As always, whenever the Governor is announcing appointments, I cringed instinctively because to say that Schwarzenegger appoints a lot of people that are members of the party of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would be an understatement.
Just to see if MAYBE there had been a change in his thinking on the appointment of Democrats as judges, I opened the first release — an announcement of SEVEN new judges being appointed in populous Los Angeles County. If EVER there was a place that needs to have people of a more conservative bent on the court, LA’s the place.
Well, guess what? There were SIX Democrats appointed in Los Angeles County, and ONE lone Republican. This has been a consistent pattern with the Governor’s appointments in Los Angeles County which have been exceedingly lopsided in support of liberals.
When you add them all up, yesterday’s Judicial appointments numbered 14 in seven different counties. All but three of them are Democrats.
You can read more about it in an article in the Metropolitan News-Enterprise*.
Adam Abrahms, the Chairman of the California Republican Lawyers Association’s Los Angeles Chapter was quite critical of Schwarzenegger. An unnamed spokesperson for the Governor defended the Governor’s record, saying that of 401 Judicial appointments, 51% have been Republican.
Earth to the Governor: That is a DEPLORABLE RECORD for a REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR. I suspect that if you go back to all of the Republican donors and activists who helped elect and re-elect Schwarzenegger (while the Dems were busy campaigning first to keep Gray Davis and then to elect Phil Angelides), they would all tell you that it is shameful that the Governor has appointed over 150 Democrats to the bench. I know that I am quite upset about it.
Here is an excerpt from the Met News online story:
Abrahms, who was involved in a 2006 effort to push Schwarzenegger to appoint more GOP members to judgeships, said it was “completely unprecedented” for the governor to have made so many opposing party appointments during his time in office. He accused the governor of “political horse trading” and abandoning his principles “to curry favor with his friends in Sacramento.”
A spokesperson for the governor disputed Abrahms’ assertions, emphasizing that “the governor appoints who he feels is most qualified to serve on the bench,” and noting that over half of Schwarzenegger’s judicial appointments have been Republicans.
She said Schwarzenegger has now appointed 401 judges to the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and superior courts, with 51 percent identifying themselves as Republicans, 40 percent as Democrats, and nine percent declining to state a party affiliation.
Abrahms did not offer specific criticism of the appointees to the Los Angeles Superior Court, explaining that he was “sure they are good lawyers: LA is full of good lawyers.” He added, however, that the selections “unfortunately don’t show commitment to the principles the governor was elected on, to value victims over criminals.”
On a closing note, how pathetic is it that one of our state’s most esteemed Republican Leaders, and a former State Party Chairman, Supervisor Mike Antonovich, has to say that he wants "balance in appointments."
I have no doubt that what he really wants is a Republican Governor, except for notable and occasional exceptions, who appoints good conservatives to the bench.
* – The Met Enterprise website does not allow you to link to specific stories, so this is just a like to their website.