Elections for Orange County’s judges are among the least discussed in the county, with few details publicly available on who they are or what positions and opinions they bring to the bench.
[Read: Santana: Finding The Real Judges of OC]
Those questions extend to who funds their campaigns.
This election cycle, most judge candidates didn’t file financial disclosures with the OC Registrar of Voters because the courts are a state position and file to the California Secretary of State.
But a Voice of OC review of financial disclosures filed by the five of the six candidates for judge in Orange County found most of the campaigns are largely funded by local police unions, the county sheriff deputies’ union, the county prosecutors’ union and defense attorneys who regularly argue cases before the court.
Altogether, Voice of OC found at least $423,000 that has been invested on deciding who the county’s next judges will be at the upcoming March 5 primary election – positions that hold six year terms.
Prosecutors Receive Most Funding for Judge Races
All three of Orange County’s elections for judge this year have one thing in common: The top fundraiser is currently a Deputy District Attorney.
Nearly 75% of all the money spent on the judges’ races went to three candidates: Deputy prosecutors Jason Baez, Richard Zimmer and Whitney Bokosky.
All three are also endorsed by county OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer, Sheriff Don Barnes and the unions for both the county sheriffs’ deputies and the assistant district attorneys.
Bokosky, Baez and Zimmer did not respond to requests for comment.
Zimmer received just over a third of all his campaign donations from law enforcement unions and individual donations from lawyers employed by the county, while nearly half of his donations came from individual defense attorneys or law firms.
In total, he raised just over $50,000.
He also loaned his campaign $37,000 out of his own pocket.
His opponent, public defender Binh Dang, has disclosed no fundraising activity at either the county or state level.
Both Baez and Bokosky also reported extensive fundraising from law enforcement unions and defense attorneys, which made up over 70% of both their campaign funds.
In total, Baez raised around $96,000 and Bokosky brought in just under $60,000.
The biggest donor across all three of their campaigns was the sheriff’s deputies union, which spent a combined $23,000 across all three of their races.
They were followed by a slate of local police department’s unions, including the cities Orange, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Tustin and Westminster, who all spent between $1,000 to $1,500 supporting each candidate.
Daniel Kern and Daniel Jacobson, who are running against Bokosky and Baez respectively, are largely self funded, with Kern loaning his campaign $8,000 while Jacobson invested $76,000 of his own money into his campaign.
Wylie Aitken, chair of Voice of OC’s board of directors, endorsed Bokosky and Jacobson.
How Do Judges Handle Their Campaign Donors?
When judges have an attorney who donated to their campaign appear in their court, they are required to disclose any donation from $100 to $1,500 according to the California Code of Judicial Ethics.
“The judge shall disclose any contribution or loan of $100 or more from a party, individual lawyer, or law office or firm in that matter as required by this canon,” states the legal code. “The judge has discretion to select the manner of disclosure, but the manner used shall avoid the appearance that the judge is soliciting campaign contributions.”
But if the donation exceeds $1,500, state law requires the judge be “disqualified,” from any case involving a donor, a point that’s repeated in the code of judicial ethics.
“A judge is disqualified if the judge has received a campaign contribution exceeding $1,500 from a party or an attorney in the proceeding.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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