March 2008 brought the Mobile County bench into campaign season, with two judges opening re-election efforts and one of the county’s most recognizable legal figures publicly declining to run.
McKnight and Sherling kick off
Mobile County District Judge Charlie McKnight scheduled his re-election kickoff for Thursday, March 13, at the Bakery on Dauphin Street near Broad. McKnight, 63, was an eight-year Republican jurist seeking his second full six-year term. Before rising to the district bench, he had served 11 years as a municipal judge on Dauphin Island.
Recently appointed District Judge Bob Sherling planned his own kickoff for Wednesday, March 12, at Wintzell’s Oyster House downtown, launching a Republican campaign to hold the seat Gov. Bob Riley had appointed him to earlier in the year.
Both events followed a template that had become standard for Mobile judicial campaigns: an early-evening reception at a downtown restaurant, a couple of hours of handshaking, and a fundraising target that would have astonished judicial candidates of an earlier generation.
Galanos says no — and says why
The more newsworthy development was a decision not to run. Former Mobile County Circuit Judge and ex-District Attorney Chris Galanos announced he would not mount a Democratic challenge to Circuit Judge Michael Youngpeter, the Republican appointed to the bench by Riley in January.
Galanos gave three reasons, and the candor of them was unusual.
First, he said, there was a harmony in his personal life that he had rarely experienced and did not wish to jeopardize by entering what would certainly be a contentious and divisive campaign. Second, he had spoken with Youngpeter and told him of his decision, adding that he believed the judge to be both competent and a decent human being. Third — and, he said, to be brutally candid — the outcome of the race would be far from certain.
About three years earlier, Galanos had been involved in a domestic incident at the home of his ex-wife and, as a result of the charges, underwent anger management counseling. He acknowledged the episode directly in explaining his decision.
“I know that,” he said of 2008 appearing to be a golden opportunity for a Democrat to win countywide in Mobile, “but my bottom line right now is the relationship I enjoy with my children and my ex-wife and I don’t want to do anything that potentially would jeopardize those bonds.”
Why the seat was open in the first place
Youngpeter’s seat had belonged to Herman Thomas, who resigned from the circuit bench in the fall of 2007 as ethics charges against him were set for trial before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. Riley appointed Youngpeter to fill the vacancy in January, and Youngpeter announced he would seek the seat as a Republican.
Galanos, who served as Mobile County district attorney for years before becoming a circuit judge, was among the few Democrats with the name recognition to make a countywide judicial race competitive. His decision effectively cleared the path.
The shape of judicial politics
Alabama elects its judges in partisan contests, a system that a minority of states retain and that Alabama has defended vigorously. The consequence is that judicial candidates raise money, run advertisements and appear on a ballot line beneath a party label — and that a strong partisan tide at the top of the ticket can carry judges in and out of office regardless of their records.
In Mobile County in 2008, that tide was running Republican, and the fundraising totals coming out of downtown restaurants reflected it. Both McKnight and Sherling held their seats, and Youngpeter, unchallenged, kept the circuit seat he had been appointed to weeks earlier.