The slate of judicial candidates on the San Diego County ballot for the June primary features two contested battles — three candidates will vie for one seat, and two hopefuls will face off for a different seat.
Additionally, there are three other open judicial seats in which a candidate to be a new judge is running unopposed.
Candidates Nicole D’Ambrosi, David Gallo and Tia Ramirez are facing each other to win office No. 32, a seat left up for grabs when San Diego Superior Court Judge Daniel Belsky did not file to run for re-election.
Office No. 31 will be a contest between Jodi Cleesattle and Adam Noakes. They are vying for the seat held by San Diego Superior Court Judge Garry Haehnle, who also is not running for re-election.
There are three other seats open, but each seat has only one candidate. Court Commissioner Leah Boucek is running unopposed, as are Tracy Prior and Laurie Hauf, both of whom are longtime deputy district attorneys. Since they are unopposed and the filing period has closed, each is presumed likely to win an open judicial seat.
The three women will fill seats left open by Judge Earl Maas, Judge Daniel Goldstein and Judge Richard Whitney, none of whom are seeking re-election.
There are 135 judicial seats in San Diego Superior Court. Terms run six years. The vast majority of vacancies are filled by appointment by the governor. Seats tend to come open for election — as opposed to appointment — when a judge opts not to run for re-election.
The likely election of the three women to replace seats currently held by men comes as the San Diego Superior Court bench continues a long trend toward more diversity.
Twenty years ago, women made up just 35% of the judges in the San Diego Superior Court. Last year, 48% of its judges were female, according to a report the Judicial Council released in March. That’s slightly higher than statewide numbers from last year, which show that women made up about 45% of the bench.
The report shows fewer strides made in diversifying the bench in terms of race or ethnicity. Twenty years ago, of the judges who responded to the survey, about 66% of the judges on the San Diego Superior Court bench identified as White. Last year, 60% of them were White.
A lot more judges were willing to respond to the race question last year, with just seven declining to answer. Twenty years ago, 26 judges — 20% of the bench — did not respond.
Statewide over the last two decades, the number of Black judges has increased 132%, and the number of Latino judges increased by 120%.
Locally, there were four Black judges, seven Latino judges and one judge who identified as multiracial in 2006. Last year, there were 11 Black judges, 19 Latino judges and five multiracial judges.