Idaho Supreme Court candidates Joel Horton and John Bradbury will debate tonight on Idaho Public Television. The debate airs at 8:30 p.m.
After the debate, log on to idahoptv.org for online analysis with a panel of pundits, including Statesman Editorial Page Editor Kevin Richert.
Supreme Court campaigns are an oddity among Idaho elections.For better or worse, the candidates cannot make campaign promises. Judicial canons forbid the candidates from telling voters how they would rule on issues that might come before the court. Candidates can talk - in carefully nonspecific terms - about their judicial philosophy.
Expected to sort through this haze, voters might be tempted to reach for any flashlight that's handy. So they might put stock into an Idaho State Bar survey that strongly favors appointed incumbent Joel Horton over challenger John Bradbury.
Don't do it. You don't need to be a Perry Mason or an Atticus Finch to punch a few gaping holes in this survey. Let's walk through the numbers:
The state bar sent out 4,130 surveys to its members statewide. (Yes, that means Idaho has at least 4,130 attorneys. If you're so inclined, insert your own favorite lawyer's joke here.)
The bar received back 437 completed surveys. That represents a 10.6 percent response rate - sufficient to make the abysmal 25 percent voter turnout in Idaho's 2006 primary look like a mad rush to the polls.
Of the 437 completed surveys, 203 bar members did not grade Bradbury because they did not know the Orofino-based district judge. Only 55 respondents passed on grading Horton - who is better-known, especially within the Treasure Valley's legal community, from his work as a magistrate judge and district judge in Ada County.
So that means that only 9 percent of the state's bar members graded Horton, while barely 5 percent bothered to grade Bradbury.
These are small samples - and almost certainly not scientific samples. This leaves a smattering of attorneys who have either had a good impression of the candidates, or perhaps have appeared before the candidates in court and now have axes to grind.
Predictably enough, the two candidates see the results differently.
In an interview with the Statesman editorial board, Horton said he was pleased by the results, but "in candor, I was not surprised." Last summer, the Idaho Judicial Council scrutinized Horton and other candidates on what it takes to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court. So Horton isn't surprised, a year later, to get high survey marks on similar yardsticks: integrity and independence; knowledge and understanding of the law; judicial temperament and demeanor; and legal ability and experience.
Bradbury, running as an outsider, said the survey was unfair, since 63 percent of the responses came from the Treasure Valley's 4th Judicial District. For these respondents, Horton is well-known, and represents the status quo. Says Bradbury, "They didn't use (the survey) to evaluate, they used it to campaign."
What do you do, if you're a confused voter who doesn't happen to be an attorney? You can judge the candidates based on what they can say about the law. You should take a careful look at Bradbury's ideas for making the courts more accessible and transparent - a key factor in our decision to endorse Bradbury.
Either way, render the bar survey results inadmissible.
"Our View" is the editorial position of the Idaho Statesman. It is an unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Statesman's editorial board. To comment on an editorial or suggest a topic, e-mail editorial@idahostatesman.com.
