Asking voters who know nothing about judicial candidates, and usually fail to do any research of their own is a recipe for disaster.
Well, looks like we’ve done it, San Diego. The electorate has spoken, and the electorate has chosen a completely unqualified individual to serve as a Superior Court judge in San Diego County.
Gary Kreep is a lawyer who decided he wanted to be a judge. Relatively harmless in and of itself, until you find out a little more about him. First, he is the founder of the United States Justice Foundation, an innocuous sounding name (aren’t they always?) for an organization that is dedicated to TEA Party causes and the advancement of right wing religious causes. They are anti-abortion, anti-gay, all conspiracy theory all the time whack jobs. His endorsement list reads like a who’s who of the TEA Party.
They are also the chief promulgators of the “Barack Obama as foreign born” nonsense. Gary Kreep is even the star of his very own USJF sponsored infomercial on why Barack Obama is the “foreign born Manchurian Candidate who was illegally elected to be the President of the United States.” Kreep was also the instigator of a bevy of birther lawsuits challenging the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency, all of which were thrown out of court on their face. He was a close associate of whackado Laguna Beach dentist/lawyer/immigrant/professional nuisance/embarrassment Orly Taitz, until the two drama queens recently had a falling out with one another, each accusing the other of “delaying” birther lawsuits.
To make matters worse, Kreep’s peers at the San Diego County Bar Association rated him “Lacking Qualifications,” their lowest rating in their evaluation system for judges up for election, whereas Kreep’s opponent, Garland Peed, was given the highest rating granted by the Judicial Election Evaluation Committee of “Well Qualified.”
The Bar Association essentially said to the voters of San Diego County “DON’T ELECT THIS GUY!!!” And yet it appears that that’s exactly what the voters have done.
In response to the SDCBA’s poor opinion of Kreep’s bona fides for the bench, Kreep told the UT San Diego that “the bar is biased against him because of his strong Christian beliefs and the causes he advocates.” “My being biased because of my religious and political beliefs is what they hit me with,” he told the UT.
Please read the rest of this post at the San Diego Free Press.
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celebrate diversity!
Thanks Andy for following this kreepy story since election night. Many judges come out of the prosecution office – of which ever town or city or county they happen to be in, therefore, the bench is filled with pro-prosecution judges, especially in the criminal arena. This is one of the reasons that judges are so conservative, generally speaking. No one, like you noticed, notices the judicial seat races … and that’s what Kreep and his cohort Jim Miller were hoping …. Please, also look into Jim Miller – he carries the same baggage as Kreep. Yet, by your final summation, counselor, you say voters have lost the right to vote for judges because a majority voted Kreep in. (I think your hit on the name thing is right on) and using that logic, we should be prevented for voting for president as a majority voted for George W Bush in 2004 (or did we?).
No one in SD media did enough to profile this guy ahead of the election, not even you, so the blame doesn’t lie with anyone but the media for falling down on the job.
On the bright side, think of all the fun better media will have making a field day out of this judge’s bad decisions, loon-bucket utterances and generally piss poor performance. I betcha in no time at all he’ll have loads of bureaucrats at the courthouse willing to talk about his antics so its up to the fine folks at the fourth estate to give him all the attention he deserves. And then we can talk to others running for judgeship and grill them, too, to see if they have any brains and report accordingly. Remember, if the public were to lose their rights to vote for anybody anytime, it would make media utterly, irretrievably irrelevant. No need to push that last step from your own soapbox.
So the problem is with the voters?
Which is harder to believe, the birther argument or the phoney California budgets? I would contend that everyone in Sacramento that voted for last years budget is lacking qualifications to vote on the current budget. The voters are extremely insightful when compared to the Democrats in Sacramento, IMO
John, see this: OB Rag endorsements mentions Kreep’s dangers – http://obrag.org/?p=60646
“The blame doesn’t lie with anyone but the media for falling down on the job.”
If only that were true. Actually the blame lies with everyone who refuses to pay for news content or support the news gathering / reporting / analyzing / watchdog mission in any meaningful way.
Behold the bright new era of tiny newsrooms, laughable resources, chasing pageviews, listicles instead of profiles and investigations, business moguls owning news outlets, and so on.
But maybe the legions of highly qualified Citizen Journalists will take up your cause and be more vigilant next time around. Contact their ombudsman at… wait a second… hmm….