Primary may decide judicial election

---

Anyone still on the fence about who should fill the two available seats on the county's Circuit Court bench better make up his mind soon.

Because of a quirk in Maryland law, there is a chance this month's primary elections - not the Nov. 2 general election - will be the final vote on which two of the county's three judicial candidates will win full 15-year terms on the bench.

The names of Circuit Court judges Ronald Jarashow and Laura Kiessling and their Republican challenger, Alison Asti, will appear on both the Republican and Democratic ballots Sept. 14. And if the same two candidates are the top vote getters in both primary elections, only those two names will be placed on the general election ballot.

"It would be over," said Ted Staples, who is handling the finances for Jarashow and Kiessling.

The importance of the primary comes as no surprise to Jarashow and Kiessling, both Democrats appointed to the bench in January by Gov. Martin O'Malley, nor Asti, who announced her candidacy in June. All three have been actively campaigning for months, holding fundraisers and collecting endorsements.

Jarashow and Kiessling, who are running together as a "slate," have garnered more than $90,000 in contributions, not to mention endorsements from the Maryland State Bar Association, the county's Fraternal Order of Police, 10 members of former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s Judicial Nominating Commission, 15 former presidents of the Anne Arundel County Bar Association and a bipartisan group of more than 30 local trial attorneys.

At the same time, Asti, a former president of the Maryland State Bar Association, has garnered more than $27,500 in contributions and the endorsement of the Anne Arundel Republican Central Committee. She said other organizations and people have endorsed her, but she declined to provide The Capital a list.

"I will release them in due time," she said.

Best choice?

Contested judicial elections are a relative rarity in Maryland and Anne Arundel County. There are only 12 Circuit Court judges in the county, and the last two appointed to the bench were elected to full terms without a fight.

The county's last contested judicial election was in 2004, when Judges Paul G. Goetzke and Paul F. Harris Jr. unseated Judges David S. Bruce and Rodney C. Warren. Circuit Court Judge Michele Jaklitsch, who was appointed to the bench in 2002, also won a full term during the election.

While that election cycle was dominated by complaints that the Circuit Court bench was soft on criminals, this year's election is focusing on questions of experience, cronyism and the candidates' political affiliations.

Each candidate claimed last week he or she was the most qualified, whether it be Jarashow with his 35 years as a private trial attorney, Kiessling with her 19 years with the State's Attorney's Office, or Asti with her 17 years serving as general counsel to and eventually president of the Maryland Stadium Authority.

Jarashow, who served as a partner with the firm of Franch, Jarashow & Smith before taking the bench, said he handled hundreds of civil trials involving contract disputes, personal injury and other aspects of commercial law. He added that in the 1970s he worked as a law clerk to Chief Judge Richard P. Gilbert with the Maryland Court of Special Appeals and later served as general counsel for a large sailboat manufacturer.

While most familiar with criminal law, Kiessling said she also brings broad experience to the bench. She noted that before becoming a prosecutor she served as a clerk for former Circuit Court Judge Bruce C. Williams.

Kiessling, who served as the county's first female deputy state's attorney before taking the bench, added that many of the criminal cases she handled as a prosecutor shared similarities with civil cases. Specifically, she said shaken-baby cases were like medical malpractice cases, auto-manslaughter cases were like motor torts, and white-collar cases were like contract disputes.

Asti, who in 1996 helped bring the Cleveland Browns - now the Baltimore Ravens - to Maryland, said that during her time with the authority she handled commercial contracts, lease disputes, and personal injury and tort claims. There was even an antitrust lawsuit involving the NFL, she said.

"I have the broadest and most varied background of any of the candidates," said Asti, who currently serves as a mediator with The McCammon Group.

Trial experience

Despite her time overseeing all litigation matters for the stadium authority, Asti has relatively little trial experience.

Without that experience, Jarashow and Kiessling argued last week, Asti is unqualified for the job.

"She wants to learn in a weekend what we have learned over our entire careers," said Jarashow, echoing a concern dozens of trial attorneys voiced over the past two months to The Capital.

"You should not have a judge where her first trial is in a robe," Kiessling added.

Asti acknowledged earlier this year she would have to "brush up" on the state's evidentiary rules, but last week she declined to say if she had ever personally argued a case in front of a judge. She stressed the state constitution does not require a judge to have trial experience and argued that to answer the question would "dignify the debate."

"This question is only important to my two opponents - as it is their only experience," she said in an e-mail. Without getting into specifics, she added later that she had been in a courtroom "many times" and that she had "directly supervised" her staff attorneys.

Asti went on to question exactly how many estate, real estate, employment and commercial cases Kiessling tried before taking the bench and how many criminal cases Jarashow tried.

"Circuit Court is a court of general jurisdiction and it is rare to find an attorney who becomes a judge who has experience in all of the areas relevant to being a judge. That is because the practice of law is so specialized today," she said.

Finally, Asti dismissed the broad support - both in kind words and political contributions - Kiessling and Jarashow are receiving from county trial attorneys. She argued the endorsement of the Maryland Bar Association, an organization she headed in 2007, carried no weight because the organization always endorses whomever the governor appoints to the bench.

"The trial lawyers always support their own," she said.

Dems vs. GOP

Over the past two months, supporters of the three judges have ratcheted up the political rhetoric in the nominally nonpartisan race.

While each candidate repeatedly said last week that politics should not play a role in this election, Asti added almost in the same breath that O'Malley had appointed too many Democrats to the state's courts and the courts should be more "diverse."

Staples - who chastised Asti earlier this year for playing up her political affiliation and those of her opponents in a media release announcing her candidacy - noted that Asti actually changed her registration in 2009 from Democratic to Republican. Other supporters of Jarashow and Kiessling noted that Asti previously donated money to several Democratic candidates and a political action committee dedicated to helping "progressive women" seek political office.

Asti defended her decision to change parties, explaining that until two years ago she wasn't very politically active. She said she was busy working, serving on various boards and raising her children.

"Politics simply wasn't on my radar screen," she said. But, she added, when she started to get involved she realized her beliefs aligned more with the Republicans than the Democrats.

As for the $250 she gave Harriett's List between 1999 and 2002, Asti described the five $50 contributions as "nominal" and argued it was "bogus" to say she really supported the group. She said she made the donations because she thought it was important for women to support women.

---

sdaugherty@capitalgazette.com

YOUR COMMENTS

RULES OF PARTICIPATION

If you encounter other problems, please email nlundskow@capitalgazette.com and include your name, username, and any errors or messages that are displayed. The more information you can provide, the better able we will be to assist you.

In order to post or vote on a comment, you must be signed in with a hometownannapolis account.

Take a look at a summary of Commenting Guidelines.

Report Abuse or Vote In order to allow the user community the ability to collectively rank the value of comments posted on the Capital Gazette websites we have implemented a thumbs-up/down system. All logged-in users may participate by voting up/down each comment. If others vote on your comment, your individual score will go up/down depending on the votes. Initially, everyone starts with a score of zero, and must earn credits to have significant voting weight. Individuals with higher scores will have more voting weight. 0 0

Alison Asti - 2010-09-13 21:12:54

I sent the following message to Alison Asti earlier this evening:

Dear Ms. Asti,
I received an automated phone call at home this evening asking me to support you in tomorrow's election. I had seen your signs (in fact I think I may have seen you foolishly standing in the middle of Route 2 during rush hour, waving one of your signs), but I had not really paid much attention to the judicial election. Your phone call got my attention so I looked up your web site. What struck me immediately was the negative statements about Governor O'Malley and the supposed bias of the judicial selection process. Then, I saw endorsements from Bob Ehrlich and my old PG County friend Audrey Scott. Of course none of these facts were mentioned in your phone call. Based on this, I would never vote for you. I think it is unfortunate that a seemingly well-qualified lawyer such as yourself would stoop to making misleading phone calls the night before the election.
Sincerely,
Tim W
Edgewater, MD

unhide Comment hidden due to low ranking. Why is this comment hidden?

Tim W - Edgewater, md - Karma: Neutral

values Count - 2010-09-08 09:59:48

It is in the candidates values that people need to choose judges. There is a fundamental difference between the Democrat approach to judgement and sentencing that is philosophically different than republican judges tend to deliberate. We dont want to become another Vermont where we let offenders get off easy and plea bargans are readily accepted by judges (MD has a 94% plea rate). We need a real person that is willing to stand behind their good, solid values. I dont know a lot about law schools, but I do know that I want someone who will stand up and be willing to be a judge, not a negotiator and on the take by the OMalley camp.

Mary Jones - Mayo, MD - Karma: Neutral

Comment removed by HometownAnnapolis staff. - 2010-09-08 03:44:01

Staff message: Why is this comment hidden?

tier 2 - 2010-09-07 11:27:26

Well it seems the tier rankings are alien to some , that being the case don't take my word for it due your own research. Kiessling is not anyone you want on the bench, she is embittered and vengeful. Furthermore, she is a woman and we need more men on the bench., Thereofer we must vote for Jarashow and the other one to avoid keissling.

reynold cavern - Annapolis, md - Karma: Terrible

Clear Choice - 2010-09-06 22:47:01

Mr. Cavern, I note you are not a licensed attorney in Maryland. What qualifies you to classify Catholic as a 3rd tier and Maryland as a 2nd tier? I am not sure that what law school you go to is an indication of intelligence. You would have to conclude that George W. Bush was a smart man (which he obviously was not) under that thinking. The reality is that criminal cases dominate the circuit court docket and Asti lacks the experience to deal with it. With regard to no experience, their is a significant distinction between the qualities for an appellate judge and those for a trial judge, Kagan has the experience for an appellate court such as the Supreme Court, Kiessling has the qualifications for a trial court like the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County.

Tom Jefferson - Annapolis, MD - Karma: Neutral

Asti is Friends with - 2010-09-06 09:03:55

Stephanie Hodges who is running for State Delegate in Distric 32.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/ElectHodgesMD32?ref=ts

Hodges has been doing nothing, but smearing the good name of an upstanding politician and member of the community Ted Sophocleus. This is a video she posted on Youtube smearing him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up4GD7bOR1o

Stephanie has also been smearing the Jarashow-Kiessling campaign. This is a picture from here Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/photo.php?pid=6688210&id=206608835812&ref=fbx_album

Do we really want people in office who are involved in this type of dirty politics?

Joseph Piazzola - Hanover, MD - Karma: Neutral

Having it both ways? - 2010-09-06 08:09:10

On her campaign webpage, Ms. Asti has stated "But my greatest professional accomplishments were . . . being President of the MD State Bar Association." She lists numerous positions with bar associations on her resume. Odd to cite that role as one of your greatest accomplishments and then dismiss the MSBA endorsements of your opponents as "carr[ying] no weight". Parallel logic suggests that either Ms. Asti's positions with the Bar Association also carry no weight as professional accomplishments, or the MSBA endorsement is meaningful.

Julia Reinhart - Millersville, MD - Karma: Neutral

clear choice - 2010-09-05 10:17:02

I will cross party lines and vote for Asti. Catholic is a tier 3 school and Marylqnd is a tier 2 school, this necessarily means Asti is smarter. My 2nd choice will be Jarashow due to type and depth of knowledge and experience. Kiessling has too many state connections and lacks breadth of experience. The mind of a prosecuter is not a very good lens from which to Judge.

No experience? - 2010-09-05 02:36:29

"You should not have a judge where her first trial is in a robe," Kiessling added.
Really??? Hmmm if I recall correctly, now wasnt Elena Kagan put on the Supreme Court with absolutely no prior experience as a judge??

M D - Annapolis, MD - Karma: Excellent