CIRCUIT COURT ELECTION RESULTS<\/a><\/p>\nRace covers six Big Bend counties<\/p>\n
The 2nd Judicial Circuit covers Leon, Gadsden, Jefferson, Liberty, Wakulla and Franklin counties, meaning voters throughout much of the Big Bend participated in the contest.<\/p>\n
Judicial races are nonpartisan, so voters were able to participate regardless of political party affiliation.<\/p>\n
Marsh entered the election as the incumbent, while Green sought to unseat him.<\/p>\n
Marsh scores big win in Wakulla County<\/p>\n
Wakulla County provided Marsh with one of his strongest performances.<\/p>\n
Unofficial results showed Marsh receiving 5,071 votes, or 70.88%, compared with 2,083 votes, or 29.12%, for Green.<\/p>\n
All 12 Wakulla County precincts had reported, although the county’s election results indicated some vote-by-mail reporting remained incomplete at the time of the update.<\/p>\n
Those margins proved important in what became a much tighter circuitwide race.<\/p>\n
Experience a major issue in campaign<\/p>\n
Marsh and Green both have deep Tallahassee ties but entered the race with different legal backgrounds.<\/p>\n
Marsh has served on the circuit bench for approximately eight years. Before becoming a judge, he served in the U.S. Navy as a judge advocate general officer and later worked as an assistant attorney general in Florida.<\/p>\n
During a candidate forum, Marsh pointed to his years on the bench as a key distinction between himself and his challenger.<\/p>\n
Green argued that his experience across different parts of the legal system prepared him for the circuit court.<\/p>\n
His background includes serving as a federal appellate law clerk and working as an assistant state attorney. He has also practiced criminal defense and personal injury law and served as president-elect of the Tallahassee Barristers Association.<\/p>\n
Candidates address public trust in courts<\/p>\n
The campaign also focused on judicial independence, integrity and declining public confidence in the court system.<\/p>\n
During a June candidate forum, Green argued that trial courts can improve public trust through transparency, independence and equal application of the law.<\/p>\n
Marsh emphasized the ethical restrictions placed on judges and his experience applying the law from the bench.<\/p>\n
What does a circuit judge do?<\/p>\n
Florida’s circuit courts handle some of the state’s most significant trial-level cases.<\/p>\n
Circuit judges preside over felony criminal cases and major civil disputes, along with family law, juvenile, probate and other matters depending on their assignments.<\/p>\n
Unlike partisan races appearing on Tuesday’s ballot, judicial candidates do not run as Republicans or Democrats.<\/p>\n
Marsh’s victory keeps him on the bench in the 2nd Judicial Circuit following one of the closest judicial races in the Big Bend during Tuesday’s primary election.<\/p>\n
With the unofficial count at 50.94% to 49.06%, fewer than two percentage points separated the two candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Incumbent circuit judge wins another term after close six-county contest covering Leon, Gadsden, Jefferson, Liberty, Wakulla and Franklin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-375245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}