Hearing Ahead for 6 Judicial Nominees

Governor Benson announced his nominations for six district court positions at an executive council meeting two weeks ago.

He said he made the nominations after talking with the heads of the district and supreme courts had told him that vacancies were causing tie ups.
met with justice ed kelly and john broderick about 3 weeks ago, and they asked me to move these district court appointments along. actually, we're expecting more resignations because they're starting to get a little tied up in some of the courts so we're doing that.

The Governor nominated the six even though he had lost the election just a week earlier.

But soon after the Governor announced his choices, critics of 4 candidates started to surface.

One nominee has been accused of sexual harassment.

Another faced judicial ethics violations twenty years ago and since made unsympathetic charges about suspected victims of domestic violence.

A third comes from a family of public servants but was arrested for DWI and public urinating 5 years ago.

He also hasn't practiced law for several years.

And the 4th has been accused of poor management and cronyism when he held public office.

Despite these reports, Governor Benson stands by his nominees.

The governor's spokesperson, Alicia Preston.
Before bringing up any of these people's names the governor was very informed on who they were, what they had to offer to the bench. what they had to give to their communities.

According to Preston, Governor Benson does have a Judicial selection committee.

That committee vetted candidates for the superior and supreme courts, but not district courts.
The New Hampshire Bar Association has long performed reviews of nominees for many judicial appointments.

James Gleason is president of the association.

He says the Bar sends its reports to the Governor, and it rates the nominees in one of three categories.
the first is a person is qualified. the second is a person is qualified with reservations. and the third is a person is not qualified. we were painstaking in our effort not to compare candidates to each other. we were painstaking in our effort not to make suggestions as to who would do a better job. we just honestly and fairly evaluate those individuals who are nominated.

The Bar doesn't make its findings public.

And its review panel includes only lawyers.

The Judicial Selection Committee that operated under former Governor Jeanne Shaheen included lawyers and laymen.

Kate Hanna, a Manchester attorney, chaired that committee.

She is now on Governor-elect John Lynch's transition team.

She says the Shaheen commission thoroughly checked the backgrounds of all prospective nominees.
we had an application, for example, that was approximately 25 pages long, which required the applicant to give all kinds of information about the applicant's legal background, any potential conflicts of interest, any prior professional conduct complaints, etcetera. and the councilors, i think, welcomed that kind of well structured information that they could then used to help them make their determinations.

Hanna has said Governor Lynch will consider establishing a new judicial nomination committee.

In the meantime, Governor Benson's spokesperson
Alicia Preston says the governor is simply following practices that many before him also followed when making nominations at the district court level.
this is part of a process. the governor makes a nomination. the executive council holds hearings, hears from people who know these gentlemen or ladies in those circumstances and the process moves forward.

Governor Benson's successor has said he'd like to see another tradition regarding nominations followed.

That tradition calls for outgoing governors to make very few important nominations in the final days of their terms.

John Lynch says he'd like that tradition to continue.
you know i would expect and ask the same courtesy that has been forwarded to prior governor elects, which is to defer those until the new governor takes office. again, that's been the pattern here in new hampshire. and i think we should continue that.

The Executive Council could decide to delay acting on the nominations until Governor Lynch takes office.

But the hearings for the nominees will go on as scheduled.

The councilors aren't scheduled to vote on confirming nominees until December 1st.