Pinal Today

A bill in the Arizona legislature would once again permit Pinal County to elect its superior court judges, instead of having them appointed by the governor.

The bill also applies to Maricopa and Pima counties. 

"I believe that all public officials should be accountable directly to the public," Kevin Cavanaugh, a supervisor with the Pinal County Board of Supervisors, said. 

Cavanaugh attempted to address and respond to some of the objections to the plan.

"The best way to vet public officials and hold them accountable is offering themselves up in primary and general elections," he said in a recent release on PinalCentral.com. "Currently, 39 states, including Arizona (in the smaller counties) hold judicial elections. The only real argument I hear against elections is that elections make the judiciary too political. This argument fails for several reasons."

Cavanaugh went on to specify those reasons. 

"Elections are the best way to hold judges accountable to the people they are judging," he said. "The merit system sounds good in theory but is totally unworkable in reality; it fails to hold judges accountable. That is why these decisions should be given back to the people."

He continued to respond to objections to the election plan.

"Despite judges engaging in wrongful behaviors, they are retained in elections because there is no competition," Cavanaugh said in the release. "Pinal County has recently experienced judges accused of criminal and ethical offenses with no disclosure to the public regarding the outcomes, due in part to a sealed-record system for judges. Only one judge has been removed in a retention election since 1974, despite well-publicized problems."