Arkansas Blog

For what it's worth, Courtney Henry's signs are everywhere in Benton County. I've yet to see a Williams sign.

I did, however, venture over to the Williams web site. I was curious about his resume' that he's alledgedly exagerating. I found this:

"Member of the Board of Directors of National Center for Fathering."

Does anyone have an idea what that is?

Williams is in line with the district. NWA isn't the Heights and it isn't Hillcrest. A bunch of 72207 money sent to NWA doesn't magically make Henry a good person. And by the way, how mad would Brummett be if someone running in LR was financed out of Bentonville?

Williams has experience. Has Henry ever had a client? Has she ever represented someone in court?

Pretty tough to be a fair referee if you've never set foot on the field as a player.

Williams is in line with the district. NWA isn't the Heights and it isn't Hillcrest. A bunch of 72207 money sent to NWA doesn't magically make Henry a good person. And by the way, how mad would Brummett be if someone running in LR was financed out of Bentonville?

Williams has experience. Has Henry ever had a client? Has she ever represented someone in court?

Pretty tough to be a fair referee if you've never set foot on the field as a player.

"Williams has experience. Has Henry ever had a client? Has she ever represented someone in court?"

She clerked for this same court for years. Does Williams have any judicial experience?

If your criteria for experience is trying cases, then I assume you opposed every nominee that Bush has made to federal benches this past year, correct?

Experience is a wonderful thing when coupled with a fine mind and a desire to deliver blind justice to all. But it means nothing but misery and disaster when combined with someone crazy enough to associate themselves with an extremist nut job like Jim Holt.

Sometimes the winds of life forces a person to occupy the same room with a wacko. The prudent thing to do in that situation is to smile a lot while you work your way to the door. In this case, Mr. Williams didn't look for the door, he greeted, nay, hired the nut job to work on his campaign, thereby saying to Arkansans, I am Jim Holt, Jim Holt is me. The very last combination Arkansas needs sitting behind the bench in a court of law. I'm just thankful Mr. Williams showed his cards before the election. A smarter Rapture Monkey would have hid Holt in his celestial closet until the election was won.

Welcome Judge Henry!

Mondo Freaks is concerned about donations to Henry's campaign from Little Rock, but people in Little Rock have as much interest in this race as anyone else does. We elect judges for the court of appeals from districts tied to a specific geographical region of the state, but the judge decide cases arising in every county in the state. We might not get to vote for every judge, but having a bad one has an effect on all of us.

Also, I imagine that most money donated in judicial races derives from attorneys. Little Rock has a higher concentration of lawyers than other parts of the state, so it stands to reason that donations from Little Rock donors would make up a significant amount of a judicial candidate's total donations. I don't think there's anything untoward about donations from Little Rock funding a candidate for a state judicial office.

Mondo Freaks is concerned about donations to Henry's campaign from Little Rock, but people in Little Rock have as much interest in this race as anyone else does. We elect judges for the court of appeals from districts tied to a specific geographical region of the state, but the judge decide cases arising in every county in the state. We might not get to vote for every judge, but having a bad one has an effect on all of us.

Also, I imagine that most money donated in judicial races derives from attorneys. Little Rock has a higher concentration of lawyers than other parts of the state, so it stands to reason that donations from Little Rock donors would make up a significant amount of a judicial candidate's total donations. I don't think there's anything untoward about donations from Little Rock funding a candidate for a state judicial office.

Finally, having a client and being in a courtroom are not necessarily experiences that would do much for a court of appeals judge. While these judges hear oral argument in cases, they do not preside over trials. Litigants very rarely attend oral argument, and if they do, they do not speak unless they are appearing pro se. Most of the appellate judge's work consists of reading briefs, reading the record on appeal (consisting of transcripts, exhibits, pleadings, and other documents filed with the trial court), researching issues raised on appeal, and writing opinions. Having appeared in court is not going to help you a lot with those tasks. I'm reminded here of a Rita Gruber mailing I received the other day that trumpeted her "daily" experience in the courtroom as a trial judge. That's great, but she's not running to be a trial judge, and the trial judge's task is different from an appellate judge's. The same thing applies to the notion that Williams's having appeared in court qualifies him to be an appellate judge.