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Line-Up of Candidates Set, Battles Over Designations Loom
Candidate Seeks to Use As Description Under His Name, ‘Criminal Justice Attorney,’
In Apparent Disregard of Restriction Set Forth in Election Code Revision
By a MetNews Staff Writer
(News and Analysis)
The period for establishing candidacies for Los Angeles Superior Court seats ended Friday with three judges having drawn challenges, multiple contenders vying for six open seats, and no incumbent who had filed declaration of intent to run having failed to follow through by presenting a nominating petition.
Coming up next, if events of previous election years reoccur, will be writ proceedings challenging ballot designations.
•Apt to be challenged is the label chosen by Matthew Vodnoy, a candidate for Office No. 70, an open seat. He is presently listed as “Criminal Justice Attorney.”
Under SB 235, effective Jan. 1, 2019, Election Code §13107 has been amended to provide:
“A candidate for superior court judge who is an active member of the State Bar and practices law as one of his or her principal professions shall use one of the following ballot designations as his or her ballot designation: ‘Attorney,’ ‘Attorney at Law,’ ‘Lawyer,’ or ‘Counselor at Law.’ ”
•Carolyn “Jiyoung” Park, a candidate for Office No. 118, an open seat, has listed herself as “Attorney/Community Leader.” While §13107 does say that “[t]he designations ‘Attorney’ and ‘Lawyer’ may be used in combination with one other current principal profession, vocation, or occupation of the candidate,” the word “leader” could be questioned.
Sec. 13107 bars a designation that “would suggest an evaluation of a candidate, such as…leading” and § 20716 declares “unacceptable” a designation “which would suggest an evaluation of the candidate’s…leadership abilities or character.”
(The words “Community Volunteer” are permitted under §13107.5 but only if the candidate “is not engaged concurrently in another principal profession, vocation, or occupation.”)
•Lloyd E. Handler, who seeks to unseat Judge David Gelfound, wants to be labeled “Deputy Public Defender.” Sec. 13107 sets forth that if the candidate is employed by a county, “the name of the county shall appear preceded by the words ‘County of.’ ”
•Former prosecutor Georgia Huerta, also a candidate for Office No. 118, initially chose the designation, “Deputy District Attorney, County of Los Angeles.” Such a title is permitted for present holders of that position, which Huerta is not; she’s limited by §13107 to “[n]o more than three words designating either the current principal professions, vocations, or occupations of the candidate, or the principal professions, vocations, or occupations of the candidate during the calendar year immediately preceding the filing of nomination documents.”
Her designation was changed to “Deputy District Attorney.” Although Huerta has been a deputy district attorney within the past one-year period, §20714 of the regulations permits use of a past profession, occupation or vocation only if the candidate does not have a current one; under that section, as an active member of the State Bar, she has current profession as an attorney.
•Former Carson Mayor Albert Robles has termed himself “Attorney/Educator.” On his ballot designation worksheet, filed with the county Office of Registrar-Recorder, he sought to justify the designation “Educator” by saying:
“I taught Business Law classes at Rio Hondo for 3 years and also lecturer at Cal State Dominguez Hills for 5 years.”
Sec. 20711 of the Code of Regulations requires that the candidate state “[t]he title of the position or positions which he or she claims supports the proposed ballot designation” and “[t]he dates during which the candidate held such position.”
In connection with his claim to entitlement to use the word “Educator,” he filled in the blank asking for the job title by saying, “Attorney,” and in the blank next to the words, “Start/End Dates” wrote, “for 20 years.”
There is no indication of whether his teaching activities took place within the past calendar year.
Mistake Not Repeated
Two years ago, Klint McKay, who is in the race for Office No. 118, ran unsuccessfully for the Superior Court. He put down as his designation, “Administrative Law Judge.”
Then-Deputy District Attorney (now Judge) David Berger protested to the Office of Registrar-Recorder that the designation did not meet a requirement of §13107 which says:
“If the candidate performs quasi-judicial functions for a governmental agency, the full name of the agency shall be included.”
The designation was changed by the registrar-recorder to include the agency (rendering the designation bulkier).
This year, McKay used the designation, “Presiding Judge, Administrative Law, Dept of Social Services.”
Two candidates—Deputy District Attorney Fernanda Maria Barreto and Deputy Public Defender Patrick Hare—used “LA” in their designations in specifying the county where they are employed, the permissibility of which is unclear. The designations were changed, spelling out “Los Angeles.”
The Los Angeles County Office of Registrar-Recorder late Friday added three persons to the list of those who filed nominating papers for judicial offices.
They are drunk-driving defense lawyers Mark Rosenfeld and Craig Sturm and former child actor Troy Slaten, now an administrative law judge. All are in the race for Office No. 60, an open seat.
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Candidates for Superior Court, With Ballot Designations
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