The Monroe County Bar Association says after careful review, it will drop its long-standing practice of rating judicial candidates in the Rochester area. Instead, they plan to change over to an “educational” model they say is designed to explore the candidate’s background, reasons for running and judicial philosophy.
The Bar Association for decades interviewed candidates and then rated them either “unqualified,” “qualified” or “extremely qualified.” But in the last ten years, political parties began challenging the non-partisan rating process and telling their candidates not to take part, although many continued to do so.
The Bar Association has announced via its website that a task force appointed last summer to study the issue, with the participation of both the Republican and Democratic parties, has concluded that the process wasn’t helping voters make up their minds. The panel, which included a number of former judges and bar association officials, recommended a dozen changes to the process. But the association’s board of trustees decided by a two-thirds majority to do away with the process and try something that might be more useful to voters.