It is being reported that Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno is retiring. Not too surprising. A mainstream Democrat appointed by Governor Gray Davis, he wanted to make sure he would be replaced by another Democrat. There is no doubt that Jerry Brown will appoint someone from his own party. To date, every single one of Brown’s appointments have been Democrats, which frankly makes sense for him.
I wonder how many Republican justices or judges around the State of California are serving much longer terms on the bench than they would like, simply because they want to be sure that they will be replaced by someone in their own party. While Arnold Schwarzenegger is a registered Republican, his record of appointing fellow Republicans to the bench was — well, deplorable. I don’t have specific statistics in front of me — but I would guess that maybe slightly more than half of his judicial picks were from the Party of Lincoln.
When George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson were Governors, Democrats being appointed were definitely the exception to the rule. Likewise, overwhelmingly Gray Davis’ picks were Democrats. And you can be sure that Jerry Brown will also be loyal to his party.
While this post is focused on judicial appointments, it’s applicable to all appointments.
Anyways, I am jealous, as a Republican leader, that the Democrats have a partisan Governor — while I had to choke down Governor Post-Partisan.