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By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
November 14, 2024

While the Indiana Supreme Court remains unchanged after a push to oust three justices on the November ballot for retention fizzled, the outcomes of county judicial races show Republicans are strengthening their grip on the state’s trial courts.

Across the state, Republicans were unopposed in 45 circuit court and 28 superior court races. In the seven competitive partisan contests, Republicans flipped two trial court seats held by retiring Democratic judges and upset two Democratic incumbents. Also, they held onto a seat being vacated by a retiring Republican judge and fought off two Democratic challengers to Republican incumbent judges.

Democratic judges won just three races in Monroe County and one in Perry County. All were unopposed.

In addition, Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Associate Justices Mark Massa and Derek Molter, all appointed by Republican governors, were retained, despite a grassroots campaign to boot them from the bench because they had upheld the state’s near-total abortion ban. Moreover, each garnered close to 70% of the retention votes.

The ouster effort was countered by the legal profession forming the Committee to Preserve the Indiana Supreme Court political action committee. Also, bar associations released polls that showed a majority of their responding members supported retention and lawyers wrote letters and columns advocating for the three justices to be retained.  Still Joel Schumm, professor at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, was surprised the anti-retention push did not, at least, depress the winning percentages.

“Even the sort of most optimistic people, I think, would have expected that there be at least a little bit of dip in the support for the justices, since there was sort of this campaign,” Schumm said. “Here, it turned out the effort to not retain them didn’t have much of an impact.”

Red wave sweeps through the trial courts

Although judicial races are, literally, low on the ballot and do not typically generate the excitement of elections for national and statewide office, Julie Burns was still campaigning for Magistrate Judge Lisa Reger on Election Day.

Reger, a Republican, was running against private practitioner Dustin White, a Democrat, to be the judge of Clark County Circuit Court No. 4. She won with 62.6% of the vote over White’s 37.4% and flipped the judgeship from Democrat to Republican.

Burns, a paralegal who works for Reger’s husband at a law firm in Southern Indiana, was seated outside the polling place at Henryville High School wearing a red Reger T-shirt. She said people coming to vote knew the judicial races were on the November ballot and they were knowledgeable about the candidates for judge.

Also, Burns met people who had their own stories about Reger. One man paused before going inside to vote to tell Burns that when Reger was in private practice, she handled the legal work so he could adopt his 10^th child.

“He praised her so much,” Burns said, “I started crying.”

However, this election, party affiliation seemed to be more of a predictor of success than name recognition or personal connection.

The incumbent Delaware County Circuit Court Judge Kimberly Dowling and incumbent St. Joseph Probate Court Judge Jason Cichowicz, both Democrats, lost their reelection bids to Republican challengers. Also, Clark County Circuit Court No. 4 and Vigo County Superior Court No. 6, held by retiring Democratic judges Vicki Carmichael and Michael Lewis, respectively, were both won handily by Republican candidates.

Dowling, who was first elected in 2012 in an upset of the incumbent Republican judge, earned 44.1% of the vote in her loss to Delaware County deputy prosecutor Andrew Ramirez, who got 55.9% of the vote. Speaking to the Muncie Star Press, Ramirez said he was surprised by his margin of victory, telling the newspaper he tried to “tame my expectations” prior to the election because he thought the outcome would be much closer.

Cichowicz had some added baggage going into the election because his law license had been suspended for 45 days by the Indiana Supreme Court in 2023 and earlier this year, he had faced calls to resign. He was denied another term on the probate court by St. Joseph County deputy prosecutor Loris Zappia, who got 54.0% of the vote to Cichowicz’s 46.0%.

The results in the open seat races were much more lopsided in favor of the Republicans.

Like Reger’s victory, Magistrate Judge Daniel Kelly flipped the open seat for Vigo County Superior Court No. 6.  Kelly won 62.5% of the vote to defeat attorney Kenneth McVey III, who earned 37.5%.

Likewise, Magistrate Judge Brandi Foster Kirkendall kept Johnson County Superior Court No. 1 in Republican hands by winning 69.5% of the vote over attorney Gloria Danielson’s 30.5%.

Also, incumbent Clark County Circuit Court No. 6 Judge Kyle Williams and Porter County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Trode fended off challenges from Democrats. Williams won 55.5% of the vote to defeat public defender Andrea Wasson Stemle, who earned 44.5% of the vote, while Trode trounced attorney Robbin Trowbridge Benko with 68.9% of the vote to her 31.1%.

In Vanderburgh County, former Democratic lawmaker, Ryan Hatfield, won the nonpartisan race for Circuit Court judge. He captured 53.5% of the vote over the 46.5% garnered by Magistrate Judge Molly Briles.

Retention backlash never materialized

Schumm, at IU McKinney, said the legal profession took the correct action in combating the anti-retention movement. The opposition to the three justices was fueled by social media and caught the attention of Hoosier voters.

“There have been states where the justices have not been retained, so I think it’s prudent, it’s a good thing to take it seriously and to do what could be done to educate the people about it,” Schumm said. “It’s a great threat.”

To underscore his view, Schumm pointed to the retention vote for Arizona Supreme Court Justices Clint Bolick and Kathryn King. The two justices were on the November ballot and were being opposed because they voted to uphold the state’s abortion ban from 1864.

In response, the Judicial Independent Defense political action committee launched a campaign to retain the two justices, the Arizona Capitol Times reported. The PAC echoed Indiana’s arguments for retention, asserting that ousting the justices for one ruling would politicize the Arizona judiciary.

Like Indiana, the Arizona justices were retained, but by much narrower margins, according to the Capitol Times. The initial returns showed Bolick being retained with 58.4% of the vote and King getting 59.5%.

Even though the furor over the Indiana abortion ruling did not resonate with James Michael Everage, he still voted against retaining the three Indiana justices. Outside the polling place in Austin, Indiana, he talked about the price of groceries and gasoline, but said he was most concerned about the treatment of homeless veterans.

Retired from the U.S. Marines, Everage trained in San Diego and has fond memories of seeing places like the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan. That military service influenced his opposition to retention. He voted to oust the three justices not because of how they ruled on any case but because, to him, the retention process smacks of communism.

The justices are appointed to the Supreme Court by the governor and only periodically appear on the ballot in retention votes. Everage said because America is a free country, the justices should be elected by the people of Indiana, rather than appointed by the governor.

Schumm said he had conversations with individuals who were excited about the possibility of Democrat Jennifer McCormick winning the governor’s race and were thinking of voting against retention in order to give her the opportunity to fill some seats on the Supreme Court. In the end, though, he believes they realized McCormick had an uphill battle and they did not want Republican Mike Braun making the Supreme Court picks.

The outcome of this year’s vote shows the retention system works, Schumm said.

“People are not going to like every decision that (the Indiana justices) issue, but the abortion case, like all their other cases, was well-grounded in precedent and reasoned and thought through,” Schumm said. “If some of them would be removed just because of one opinion they issue got a lot of attention, that’s going to be a problem, I think, in the long run for how the system is going to function.”

Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.

The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.