Georgia Times-Union
August 8, 2008

Voters deserve to know stances, he says



By Jake Armstrong, The Times-Union

ATLANTA - At least one candidate for the Georgia Court of Appeals says pledging not to take stances on issues - as four of the seven candidates have done - may hinder the judicial election process.

Candidates should make their positions known so voters can understand the differences between them in nonpartisan judicial elections, candidate Perry McGuire says.

Also running in the nonpartisan race for the appeals court seat being vacated by retiring Judge John Ruffin of Augusta are Tamela L. Adkins, Sara Doyle, Bruce M. Edenfield, Christopher J. McFadden, Michael Meyer Von Bremen, and Mike Sheffield.

"Georgia voters deserve to understand the stark differences of legal and philosophical opinion and belief that separate judicial candidates from each other," McGuire wrote in a letter to the Georgia Committee for Ethical Judicial Campaigns.

The pledge may also limit how activist groups and their supporters line up behind candidates.

Georgia Right to Life sent out questionnaires last week asking all seven candidates their positions on abortion, assisted suicide and in vitro fertilization in cloning. McGuire and Sheffield have answered the questionnaires in previous election cycles. The candidates pledging not to take stands - Meyer Von Bremen, Doyle, Edenfield and McFadden - probably won't provide answers.

Nancy Stith, the group's executive director, said Georgia Right to Life's 65,000 members are likely to vote for the candidate who shares their same beliefs on abortion issues.

While its unlikely the appeals court would ever face abortion issues in a case, judges there may move to higher courts, so voters should learn now where would-be judges stand, Stith said.

"If we're going to vote for people, we need to know what they feel on things we believe in," Stith said.

Attorney Jeremy Berry, co-chairman of the Georgia Committee for Ethical Judicial Campaigns, agreed with McGuire that voters deserve such information on the candidates.

"But from our perspective, that needs to be tempered against judges not committing to certain issues that might come before them as a sitting judge," he said.

Otherwise, litigants may lose faith that the issue they bring before a judge isn't already determined, he said.

jake.armstrong@morris.com, (404) 589-8424