AZ Proposition 137 is another bold, “in your face” attempt by Arizona lawmakers to further weaken the Democratic process in Arizona. The intent of the Proposition reminds me of the “Spoils System” championed by Andrew Jackson’s Whig Party in the election of 1828, in which he dismissed elected officials in the government of the opposing party to be replaced with his supporters. While the comparison is not rigid, you get the idea: weaken the will of the voters.
Legislators in Arizona propose to set aside the will of the voters who vote on retention of judges in the state’s four most populous counties. What is it about democracy and accountability that conservatives find so unappealing? Why is democracy good for ‘others” but not for themselves?
I was a proud public member of the Arizona Judicial Performance Review Commission (JPR) from Pima County for many years. Service on the JPR restored my faith in the American Judiciary. For decades, I believed judiciary practices at the state and municipal level were accountable to the political party in power and not to the people: those whose lives, fortunes, and destinies could be, and often were, destroyed on a whim – the voters. This system was particularly onerous for people of color who, historically, were viewed as no more than chattel, objects of ownership.
The JPR in Arizona should serve as a model for change to those states seeking greater engagement from their citizenry, not less. What greater act of citizenship is there than to participate in a process by which we hold accountable, based on merit, those who wield the power of life and death over the rest of us?
The public mission of the Arizona Commission on Judicial Performance Review is “to develop performance standards and thresholds, and to conduct performance reviews of justices and judges who are merit selected and subject to retention elections.” What is it that Legislators find threatening?
Recently, I authored a publication in which I commented on the composition of the JPR: “There are men and women of integrity committed to making government processes more transparent, more accessible, and, ideally, more worthy of citizen support.” I believed then, as I do now, that it is that caliber of citizen who populates Arizona’s Judicial Performance Review Commission today.
