Group works to oust judge

By Steven Martens | Friday, October 20, 2006

CLINTON, Iowa — A longtime Quad-City area judge is the target of a visible opposition campaign in the upcoming election, even though it is rare for judges to be removed from the bench by voters.

Children Need Both Parents, a political action committee, or PAC, led by Mark Griebel of Albany, Ill., started the effort asking voters not to retain District Judge Charles Pelton of Clinton, who has been on the bench in Iowa’s 7th Judicial District since 1974.

The group claims he has not done enough to encourage divorcing couples to share physical custody of their children. The campaign includes red-and-white yard signs, pre-recorded telephone messages and a Web site.

Iowa election officials say it is unusual for groups to work against the retention of a judge and that judges seldom lose retention bids.

Pelton, 66, said the group is “dead-wrong” about his stance on the shared-custody issue, and added that he does not plan to organize a counter-campaign. The Clinton County Bar Association agreed this week to prepare a statement urging voters to consider the entirety of a judge’s record rather than vote based on one case or issue.

Voters in the 7th Judicial District, which includes Cedar, Clinton, Muscatine, Jackson and Scott counties, will decide Nov. 7 on the retention of seven district judges, including Pelton, five associate district judges and three statewide appeals court judges.

Only four Iowa judges have lost retention bids since 1974, said Casey Sinnwell, assistant director of communications for the Iowa Secretary of State’s office. The most recent case of a judge losing a retention election was 5th District Judge Rodney Ryan of Des Moines in 1994, Sinnwell said. More than 30 years ago, in 1974, Associate District Judge David Halbach of Clinton was the first judge in the state to lose a retention bid.

Karen Hudson, the state PAC auditor for the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, said it is very rare for groups to form in opposition to a judge’s retention.

“I don’t think it happens real often, but occasionally it does,” she added.

Clinton County Auditor Charles Sheridan said this is the first judicial campaign he has heard of in his 18 years of experience.

A total of 78 Iowa judges are up for retention this year, three from the state Court of Appeals and 75 who are district and associate district judges. Judges stand for retention near the end of their terms, with a simple majority of the votes required to keep their seats on the bench.

Background of opposition group

Griebel said his group, which has about 300 members, mostly in Iowa, waged one other campaign against an Iowa judge, an unsuccessful attempt to oust District Judge Annette J. Scieszinski of Albia in the 8th Judicial District during 2002.

He said the group’s top priority is to encourage couples going through a divorce to work out their problems amicably. The organization advocated in 2004 for the passage of a law that encourages judges to award joint physical care in divorce cases, allowing both parents to participate in decisions such as medical care, education and religious instruction.

“That doesn’t mean we think everyone should do it,” Griebel said. “It should be an option.”

He said Pelton was the judge who granted his divorce when he lived in Clinton, but added that he never personally appeared in court before Pelton and did not have child-custody issues until after the divorce was granted. Griebel said another judge ruled on his child-custody matters.

Griebel believes Pelton does not support the law, although the group had not obtained Pelton’s history of rulings in divorce cases involving child custody and could not cite any specific cases. The group’s Web site is www.cnbp.info.

“He is the most complained-about judge in our organization,” Griebel said. Griebel also helped lead an unsuccessful effort to try to save the Albany (Ill.) Grade School from closing last year.

Judge’s views

Pelton said he favors joint physical care when both parents are supportive of the idea and when both are fit parents.

“We apply the law and do that when it’s appropriate,” he said.

Pelton said that when both parents do not agree, ordering joint physical care only creates more animosity.

“Sometimes it’s not appropriate to force joint physical custody on the children and the spouse,” he  said. “It can be dangerous to the children and put the children at risk even.”

Clinton lawyer John Frey said he believes voters should consider a judge’s overall performance when deciding whether to vote for retention, not focus on one issue. Frey agreed with Pelton that joint physical care is sometimes, but not always, what is best for the children involved in a divorce case.

“Joint physical care requires a great deal of cooperation for the best interests of the child,” Frey said. “The judge is interested in the best interest of the child.”

Griebel also pointed that Iowa State Bar Association’s 2006 ratings of judges showed 68 percent of the lawyers who participated in the survey supported Pelton’s retention in the November election while other judges in the 7th Judicial District received 82 percent to 100 percent support.

Pelton said only a small percentage of lawyers participate in the survey and that he was glad to see two-thirds of those who took part supported him.

According to Iowa’s code of judicial conduct, only judges whose retention has drawn active opposition may campaign in response and may set up committees to obtain statements of support and campaign funds under Iowa’s campaign finance laws.

Steven Martens can be contacted at (563) 659-2595 or smartens@qctimes.com.

Judges on ballot

Voters in the 7th Judicial District of Cedar, Clinton, Jackson, Muscatine and Scott counties will vote whether to retain appeals court and district court judges for six-year terms and associate district court judges for four-year terms in the Nov. 7 election.

Iowa Court of Appeals — John Miller, Anuradha Vaitheswaran and Van Zimmer.

7th District Court — Mark Cleve, James Kelley, John Nahra, Charles Pelton, David Sivright Jr., Nancy Tabor and Bobbi Alpers.

Associate District Court — Douglas McDonald, John Mullen, Gary Strausser, Arlen Van Zee and Mary Howes.

Biographical information about the judges is available at www.judicial.state.ia.us/District_Courts/District_Seven/Judges_and_Magistrates/.  For results of the  judicial survey by the Iowa State Bar Association, go to www.iowabar.org and click on 2006 Plebiscite Results.