The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

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February 8, 2012

Editorial: Let Whitfield and Murray choose next judge, not Atlanta

Gov. Nathan Deal began meeting with the finalists Tuesday to fill the seat of retiring Conasauga  Superior Court Judge Robert Adams. The finalists are Celeste Creswell, an area attorney who works in both Georgia and Tennessee; assistant district attorney Scott Minter; and Dalton attorney David Blevins, who was Deal’s Whitfield County campaign chairman.

Adams’ seat was up for reelection this summer, but he retired before completing his term.

His final day was Jan. 31. The state constitution requires there be six months between the governor appointing a judge to fill an unexpired term and the next election for that seat. If Adams had served out his term, but decided not to run for re-election, voters would have chosen his replacement this year in the July primary.

If Deal appoints someone, that election will fall within the six month window, and the next election will not take place until 2014. Effectively, Deal will not only hand that person the final months of Adams’ term but two years of the next term.

The law requires the governor to appoint someone to Adams’ seat. But it does not force him to do it in certain amount of time.

We’d like to see Deal wait for the citizens of Whitfield and Murray counties, which comprise the Conasauga Judicial Circuit, to have a July election and select their own representative to the court. That election would fill the next term, and Deal could then appoint that person to fill the final five months of Adams’ term instead of appointing someone not chosen by the voters to the final 10 months of his term and an additional two years.

Would Superior Court face any large problems by going without a judge for five months?

The Daily Citizen asked Chief Judge William Boyett if the court could do without a judge for a time, allowing an election to take place in July without the governor having to make an immediate appointment.

“What the governor does is up to the governor, and we don’t take a position on that,” he said. “What we will do is to utilize senior judges who are retired Superior Court judges who come in and work when there’s a need — this would be one of those needs — or frequently we use senior judges when there’s a conflict. Let’s say that a relative of one of us is involved in litigation, that kind of thing. And so we would be able to cover it as best we can as long as it may be.”  

This means that the court could handle the case load if Deal decides to wait and let voters choose their next judge.

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