Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Page 3
Judge Deborah Andrews Will Not Seek Re-Election
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Deborah Andrews confirmed yesterday that she will not be seeking re-election to the court.
“I just need more free time,” Andrews—who was first elected in 1994—told the MetNews.
“I love my position” as a juvenile court judge in Long Beach, she explained. “I am going to miss it a lot,” she commented, but said she has been looking for a more flexible schedule since her husband, Judge Bradford Andrews, retired from the court four years ago.
The couple will be “traveling, hiking, reading [and] entertaining,” she said, and she may try to learn golf.
Andrews, 62, said she does intend to sit on assignment. “I’m really looking forward to sitting at the new Long Beach courthouse,” which will be named for former Gov. George Deukmejian, who appointed her husband to the Long Beach Municipal Court in 1987, she said.
A Long Beach native, Andrews graduated from California State University, Long Beach in 1971. She earned a master’s degree in education from that school in 1976.
She and her husband attended Whittier Law School together while they both worked; she taught at Long Beach City College and CSULB while he rose through the ranks to lieutenant at the Long Beach Police Department. She graduated first in the class and was editor-in-chief of the Law Review, graduating in 1982.
The couple practiced together briefly before Bradford Andrews joined the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office and Deborah Andrews the Santa Ana office of the civil law firm that became Cotkin & Collins. She became managing shareholder of the office before leaving in 1993 to become an administrative law judge for the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.
She ran for the Long Beach Municipal Court in 1994, winning a contested election. She was sworn in by her husband, whose courtroom was adjacent to hers.
Prior to the election, she obtained a writ of mandate allowing her to be listed as “Administrative Law Judge” on the ballot. The case led to a published Court of Appeal opinion, in Andrews v. Valdez (1995) 40 Cal.App.4th 492, holding that the designation was proper when the candidate held the title as conferred by statute.
The court distinguished an earlier case barring a court commissioner from being described as “Judge, Los Angeles County (Acting),” which was not a statutory title.
Andrews went on to become a Los Angeles Superior Court judge by unification in 2000 and to win two more terms without electoral opposition.
Deputy District Attorney Sean Coen has filed a declaration of intent to seek election to Andrews’ seat in the June primary.
Copyright 2012, Metropolitan News Company