Sun article, 3 March 1996

The Sun

LETTERS
LETTERS

by The Baltimore Sun

March 3, 1996 Page(s): 4C
Edition: HOWARD SUN
Section: METRO
Length: 2250 words
Biographee: COLUMN, LETTER

Record Number: BSUN439564

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Some final thoughts before judicial primary

My wife and I attended the recent Lincoln Day Dinner put on by the Howard County Republican Party. An otherwise magnificent evening was marred by our unfortunate encounter with one of the challengers for the Circuit Court race, local attorney Jonathan Scott Smith.

While the other three entrants in the race, sitting Judges Diane O. Leasure and Donna Hill Staton and Mr. Smith's co-challenger District Court Judge Lenore Gelfman, had the class and courtesy to leave their political soliciting outside of the main dining room, Mr. Smith was "working" the room as if he were running for local dog catcher instead of one of the top judicial offices in the county.

When he came to our table, he thrust out his hand and introduced himself as "Jonathan Scott Smith, I'm running for Circuit Court judge." I replied, "Bill Cook, glad to meet you." Mr. Smith got a quizzical look and said, "There's a Bill Cook supporting my opponents," to which I answered, "That's me."

Mr. Smith then pulled his hand away and walked off, without so much as extending his hand to my wife or giving her a greeting. Instead, he moved on to the couple sitting next to us at the table, who happen to be friends of ours. Mr. Smith repeated his introduction, and our friends extended their hands and wished him luck. As Mr. Smith walked over to the next table, I called him back.

I said to him, "Jonathan, if you really want to be a successful politician, I want to tell you something about the trade. You see those people sitting next to us {our friends}? Well, you defended two guys who beat that man up in his own yard. Yet, they had the courtesy to shake your hand and wish you well. But when you found out who I was, you withdrew your hand and passed my wife up without even giving her the courtesy of saying `hello' and shaking her hand."

Mr. Smith simply spun around and walked off. Then he stopped and said, "Well, I guess that's why it's good that we only need 51 percent of the vote to win." It was that statement by Mr. Smith that confirmed I had made the right decision to support Judges Leasure and Hill Staton from the beginning of their campaign. Mr. Smith, and Judge Gelfman by her unfortunate decision to associate with him, have debased all of us, local lawyers and citizens alike, with their common politics, roadside sign-waving and their "51 percent of the voters" campaign. It may come as a shock to Mr. Smith, but a Circuit Court judge has to have a "100 percent of the voters' perspective," not his politician's 51 percent.

William P. Cook

Glenwood
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If there has been any message delivered by Howard County's sitting judges, it is that they are offended to have to run for office, or campaign, or take their case to the voters. It appears they feel we should just rubber-stamp their appointment by Gov. Parris N. Glendening. If the judges had gotten out into the community and met with the citizens of the county, we would know who they are, what their qualifications are and for what they stand. The fact that the sitting judges say it is demeaning to have to run to retain their appointed positions says more about them than anything else that has been reported.

There is a good reason the state constitution requires the public to decide who will be their judges for the next 15 years. Our forefathers trusted us to decide. The sitting judges apparently do not.

Barbara Noonberg

Ellicott City