SAN DIEGO: Christian Group Seeks To Unseat Four "Activist" Judges

Saying that judges should be accountable to the legislature and not make law themselves, a San Diego-based Christian group called Better Judges Now is fielding candidates to unseat four "activist" judges.

In separate interviews, each of the candidates declined to specify why he is running against the particular judge he challenged. Each cited a section of the judicial canon of ethics that discourages disparaging remarks about judges or the bench from lawyers. Instead, all say they’re running in large part to give voters a voice on who sits on the bench. They say judges should be held accountable and adopt a platform that emphasizes judicial restraint, and they advocate that judges should uphold laws passed by elected legislatures and not “make the law.” The incumbent judges say they don’t know why they were challenged. Lewis, 65, a longtime judge in El Cajon, said he has never met Candelore. He speculated that the four were targeted for a particular reason — all are registered Democrats. Candelore denied that. “Political affiliation never came into consideration,” he said, a comment that was echoed by the other candidates. Lewis said Better Courts Now adds both a partisan and “values issue” to the race for judge. He said it bothered him not to know what it was about his performance that merits the label of being an “activist” judge or not following the law. He declined to speak about Candelore but said it appeared to him that he “doesn’t have an ax to grind with me, but it appears he has an ax to grind with the court as a whole.”

Better Judges Now was founded by a network of pastors and churches that oppose same-sex marriage and abortion.