WCRW Meeting 11/13: Crime and Punishment
Join Washington County Republican Women at our next meeting on Saturday, November 13th as we examine the criminal justice system in Minnesota with the help of our guest speakers attorney Tony Tedesco and Sgt. Theresa Person. Mr. Tedesco is a Community Prosecutor for the City of St. Paul and will be discussing the differences between City and County prosecutors, misdemeanors and felonies and adults and juveniles. He will also outline sentencing standards and guidelines and new trends in the field along with his reflections on the criminal justice system in Minnesota.
Sgt. Theresa Person is an officer with the St. Paul police force and will be speaking about her street experience as a police officer and her experience as a sergeant in various units such as Family Violence, Property Crimes, and her newest assignment in Fraud and Forgery. This promises to be an interesting and informative meeting about crime and the criminal justice system in Minnesota.
The meeting will be held at 9:00am at the Lake Elmo Inn in Lake Elmo, Minnesota.
YOU MUST RSVP to the meeting by Thursday, November 11th so that we can have an accurate breakfast count! Please RSVP to Heidi Schumacher by Evite, phone (651)739-9053 or e-mail at [email protected].
PRE-PAY for the meeting on our website at: www.mnwcrw.com or pay at the door.
For far too many years now, incumbent judges have enjoyed very little opposition to their candidacy. When voters turn over their ballots they are surprised to see the names of judges they have never heard of with incumbent next to their names. Most are unopposed. Lots of voters don’t even bother to select any and seem to forget about it after they leave the polls.
The Minnesota constitution has allowed for the election of judges since it’s statehood about 150 years ago. According to Dan Griffith, judicial candidate for the MN Court of Appeals, our state was responding to what happened in the Dred Scott decision. The US Supreme Court ruled that blacks have no rights by saying a runaway slave could be returned to his/her master in a slave-holding state. Amazed and appalled that our Supreme Court could make such a glaring, inhumane error, MN opted to elect judges to ensure accountability.
Since then however, the election process has been stolen by those incumbent judges, who have engineered the rules for judicial elections so they are “remarkably pro-incumbent” stated Greg Wersal, candidate for MN Supreme Court. In this manner, incumbent judges are conveniently able to keep their seats. This leads Wersal to describe it as the ‘incumbent party’ – not an ‘official’ political party, but they might as well be. They’ve made the rules, often unconstitutional ones. There is not room here to explain how and why it got this way, but people need to know that there are many, including the MN State Bar, who would like to take the right to elect judges away from the voters. A right that is in our MN constitution.
Wersal, instead of just taking it, has been fighting the control of incumbent judges for years. Currently judges are allowed by the US Supreme Court and the MN appeals court rulings the ability to: seek party endorsement, tell voters their views and solicit campaign contributions. Chris Penwell, candidate in the 10th judicial district, notes that these are rights protected in the US Constitution – the freedom to associate and the right of free speech. Wersal stated it’s been 50 years since an incumbent judge lost an election. Doesn’t that make you wonder about the accountability of judges?
So when you vote this year on Nov 2, take note. My recommendation: vote for the NON-Incumbent if there is an opponent. You could select Wm. Christopher Penwell, the Republican endorsed candidate for Judge 3 in the 10th judicial seat open in Washington County. You can also select Roxanne Klugman, running against Randolph Peterson in the Court of Appeals Judge 13. Statewide, Greg Wersal and Tim Tinglestad, running against two incumbent MN Supreme Court justices, are Republican endorsed candidates along with Dan Griffith (also an endorsed Republican) running for the MN Court of Appeals Judge 14, who reminded us: “Judges shall be elected by the voters”.
WCRW Meeting 10/09: Justice in Minnesota
NEXT MEETING: Saturday, October 9th, 2010 at 9:00am
“Justice in Minnesota”
Join WCRW as we examine the judiciary during our next meeting on Saturday, October 9th, 2010. We will be welcoming 10th Judicial District Candidate Chris Penwell, newly endorsed by the MN Republican Party and Greg Wersal, candidate for the Minnesota Supreme Court. Chris Penwell has been a trial attorney for twenty-five years handling mostly business and commercial cases. He has litigated and arbitrated disputes involving over-regulation of property by the government, wind farms, faulty construction, minority shareholder disputes, employment disputes and contracts in sixteen states across the country. He will be discussing the role of a judge in the 10th judicial district, the importance of judicial temperament and impartiality, and the progress of his campaign.
In 2002, Greg Wersal won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that permitted judicial candidates to state their views on legal issues and seek political party endorsement. Recently, Wersal challenged rules created by the Minnesota Supreme Court that prohibited judicial candidates from personally soliciting campaign funds unless the candidate’s audience consisted of at least 20 people. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit agreed with Wersal that the rule violated the First Amendment guarantee of Free Speech. Another rule that prohibited judicial candidates from endorsing other candidates for office was also struck down. Greg Wersal will examine judicial elections and the importance of creating and maintaining free, open and competitive elections, as well as updating Washington County Republican Women on the progress of his campaign.
Our meetings begin at 9:00am at the Lake Elmo Inn in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. $20 for non-members and $15.00 for members, also includes a fabulous breakfast provided by Lake Elmo Inn! Those who choose to do without breakfast are eligible to pay a discounted rate of $10.00.
YOU MUST RSVP to the meeting by Thursday, October 7th so that we can have an accurate breakfast count! Please RSVP to Heidi Schumacher by evite, phone (651)739-9053 or e-mail at [email protected].
Pre-pay for the meeting on the WCRW website at www.mnwcrw.com