Palmer assistant DA applies to bench

PALMER -- Assistant District Attorney Jack W. Smith is among 22 attorneys who have applied for an opening as Anchorage Superior Court judge. Smith, 52, is currently working with the state's Palmer office. He has been an Alaska resident for eight years and has practiced law for more than 23 years.

Two judges at the Anchorage Superior Court will be retiring by the end of 2002 and will likely be replaced by the end of Gov. Tony Knowles' term. Judge Elaine Andrews has announced her retirement effective Sept. 6, and Judge Eric Sanders has announced his retirement effective Nov. 29. There is also an opening at the Fairbanks Superior Court where Judge Ralph Beistline retired in May.

Applicants for the bench will be evaluated by the Alaska Judicial Council (AJC). The council encourages comments from the public on the qualifications of all candidates during the council's evaluation phase. The AJC is a seven-member panel created under Article IV of Alaska's constitution.

The council is made up of the chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court, three non-attorney citizens appointed by the governor and three attorneys appointed by the Alaska Bar Association. AJC is charged with coming up with two or more nominees for each judgeship and submitting them to Knowles, who will appoint judges to the bench.

Superior court judges are then subjected to state-wide retention elections in which voters can retain or reject them three years after their initial appointment and again every six years after that.

The Alaska system has been praised for isolating the selection of judges from politics but criticized for putting too much power in the hands of the Bar Association, a private professional organization. Although Alaskans sometimes discuss un-elected judges versus elected judges, there has been no serious effort to amend Article IV and change the system.

Attorney John Havelock, a former state attorney general, said he believes the reason for that is because the system works well. Havelock said a populist approach is inappropriate because judges aren't paid to make popular decisions. Havelock outlined two objections to the populist approach.

"First, is that judges can become captive of the special interests, that is, those interests that can finance campaigns. The other argument is that this is a technical job, which requires mastery of the law and so forth," Havelock said. A good analogy for the Alaska Bar Association's involvement in the AJC, according to Havelock, would be a patient looking for a medical specialist and asking his family doctor for a referral.

The AJC is also called upon to produce voter information on judges' qualifications prior to retention elections. Havelock said that in recent years, the AJC has added police surveys to its qualification reviews.

"I think that was a reaction to the criticism that the process is too elitist," Havelock said.

The AJC expects to interview the candidates for Anchorage Superior Court and conduct public hearings in October. The council will conduct background investigations, survey members of the Alaska Bar, and solicit comments from the general public.

To get a list of all 22 candidates and to comment on candidate's qualifications, contact AJC executive director Larry Cohn in writing

at Alaska Judicial Counsel, 1029 W. 3rd Ave., Suite 201, Anchorage, AK 99501-1969; by telephone at (907)

279-2526; or online at www.ajc.state.ak.us.