MinnLawyer Blog

Panelists encountered strong feelings from audience members at yesterday’s forum on judicial election reform at the Humphrey Institute.

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A sharp-eyed reader noting our headline that said that this year’s appellate races offered few surprises wrote to remind me about Supreme Court races in other states. In a Mississippi race that shows where John Grisham gets his ideas, three justices running for second, eight-year terms lost: Chief Justice Jim Smith lost to Jim Kitchens, [...]

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We at Minnesota Lawyer were interested in how members of the general public decide whom to cast their ballot for in judicial elections, so we sent intrepid associate editor Barbara Jones — along with our one-man video crew — on the road to find out. They stopped off at a polling place in downtown Minneapolis [...]

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I spent yesterday (and I mean the whole day — 5:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.) working as a Ramsey County election judge, and it was an eye-opening experience. The precinct where I worked wasn’t even one of the busiest in town, attracting about 1,100 voters during the 13 hours the polls were open. But there [...]

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The front runner for the honor of the most expensive judicial race this year goes to the contest between David Piper and Jane Ranum for an open seat on the Hennepin County District Court. So far, $203,728 has been raised for that race. Most of the money has been raised by Piper, whose $168,760 in [...]

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Minnesota Lawyer doesn’t offer endorsements of judges, so the comments below are strictly my own as someone who has closely followed these races. Justice Paul Anderson is the second most senior justice on the high court, and was previously the chief judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals. He takes a scholarly approach to the [...]

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Don’t forget to check out Minnesota Lawyer’s online Judicial election guide to get information on the judicial races. Click here to visit. And don’t forget to vote tomorrow!

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Hennepin County prosecutor Howard Orenstein is running against Children’s Law Center of Minnesota executive director Gail Chang Bohr for an open seat on the Ramsey County bench. The following clip is from a debate between the two candidates at Hamline University School of Law on Oct. 29, 2008. To view the YouTube version, click here.

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Children’s Law Center of Minnesota executive director Gail Chang Bohr is running against Hennepin County prosecutor Howard Orenstein for an open seat on the Ramsey County bench. The following clip is from a debate between the two candidates at Hamline University School of Law on Oct. 29, 2008. For the YouTube version, click here.

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