It takes guts to challenge a sitting judge. The power of incumbency is hard to overcome, and in many instances, the public is not well-informed regarding the candidates. It helps to explain why poor politicians are repeatedly elected. We have a group of those in Idaho who are good at taking care of their rich cronies, but not the average Joe. It is almost impossible to defeat these people, no matter how little they do to actually improve society. Tax cuts for the rich — ah, yes, congratulations!
It is even harder to know if a judge is doing their job. Most of us do our best to stay out of court. During my trial practice, I had very few clients saying, “Oh, goodie, we get to go to court today.” Most of them didn’t get much sleep the night before — that included me too, especially if it was a trial day.
There is a contested judicial election underway in the Sixth District. Cody Brower is the sitting District Judge in Caribou County. He is being challenged by Aaron Thompson, a Magistrate Judge based in Bannock County. I don’t know either candidate personally. I may have shaken Aaron Thompson’s hand years ago, but I’m not even certain that’s true.
To the best of my knowledge, I have never met Cody Brower. I kind of know his father because he bought my Toyota Corolla when I left law school, and Cody’s father was entering law school. Yes, I am that old. The father was a kind man, and I was concerned many years later when I stood in court to handle a trial, and I announced my name to the judge. He said from the bench, “I bought your car from you in law school.”
I thought, “uh oh.” To my relief, the judge said, “That was the best little car. I had it for years, and then my daughter drove it.” Sigh of relief, and I won the trial. How can you not love a reliable Toyota — particularly the ones made in America?
Getting back to this judicial race, two decent gentlemen are running for the office of District Judge in Caribou County, and one is clearly the better candidate. How do I know that if I barely know them? It’s easy — a survey is conducted of the members of the Bar to determine their view of judicial competence. Aaron Thompson vastly outperformed Cody Brower. On a scale of 1-4, with 4 being superior, Aaron’s total average score was 3.66. Cody’s was a distant 2.26 — barely reaching average in performance.
What really struck me in analyzing the results is that Steve Boyce, a District Judge in the Seventh Judicial District, is the only other judge to have scored that high in all of the contested judicial elections. I do know Steve Boyce well — we worked together on many things over the years, and he is a superstar. My experiences with Steve before he went on the bench revealed a man with a deep intellect, total professionalism, ethical to the max, and a genuinely kind problem solver. For Aaron Thompson to have received the same average score as Steve Boyce says a lot about the respect he commands with the people who work before him every day.
Going to court is serious business, particularly at the District Court level. The stakes are often high, and dramatic impacts occur from loss of substantial property to imprisonment. Society deserves to have the candidate handling that who is at the top of their game.
Attorney friends and associates tell me Cody Brower is a nice man, but he does not command the same respect from his legal peers when it comes to a comparison with Judge Thompson.
I repeat myself — it takes guts to take on a sitting judge. Aaron Thompson has that fortitude backed up by the legal credentials and respect of his peers to claim he is better equipped to serve the citizens of the Sixth District and particularly Caribou County. Do your best to stay out of court, but if you had to go, wouldn’t you want the most qualified judge holding your fate in their hands?