Monday, February 13, 2012
Page 6
EDITORIAL
Sanjay
T. Kumar
Los Angeles Superior Court Office No. 10
Why do you suppose Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sanjay Kumar has drawn an election challenge?
A judge since 2005 and a court commissioner for four years before that—and previously a deputy attorney general handling significant appeals—he is uncontroversial and highly respected by colleagues and by the bar.
“He’s a fabulous judge,” Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Lee Smalley Edmon says. “He’s excelled in every position he’s held on the court.”
Presently, Kumar is sitting as a pro tem justice of Div. Five of this district’s Court of Appeal, and has been there since March of last year. It’s his second stint on that panel. The presiding justice of Div. Five, Paul A. Turner, hails Kumar for his industriousness and skill.
Yet, this model jurist is being challenged by Hawthorne Deputy City Attorney Kim E. Smith. Two years ago, Smith was a candidate for an open seat, and drew this comment from us:
“Lacking judicial temperament, succinctness, reasonableness and objectivity, he would be a disaster as a judicial officer.”
LACBA found him “not qualified.”
His consultant was Fred Huebscher who apparently instilled in Smith the notion that he has a name that is conducive to getting elected.
Can a rough-talking, mediocre lawyer named Smith defeat an outstanding jurist whose name is Kumar?
It is doubtful that the bigotry factor in elections is so great as to permit that. Smith fails to appreciate that it was not only Janavs’ name that led to her defeat, but the massive, surprise spending by Olson in the closing days of the campaign. The same dirty trick would not work again.
We urge the election of Sanjay Kumar.
Copyright 2012, Metropolitan News Company