Jackson County judges are afraid voters will chuck them out with the rest of the trash

This election season, you’re ready to show those fat cat incumbent politicians that you’re the boss. So you walk into the voting booth on November 2 and get to the question about whether to retain 15 Jackson County Circuit Court judges. You don’t recognize any of their names, so you just start going down the line, checking “No.” You’re out of a job, you figure. Why shouldn’t they be?

This is the scenario that judges on the ballot for retention, like 16th Circuit Court Judge Jay Daugherty, fear most.

“There are academic studies out there that show how judicial elections go, and they really go like other political elections,” Daugherty says. “When the electorate has a ‘let’s throw the bastards out’ kind of mentality, the judges are going to face that same wrath, even though we are far removed from economic issues or most political issues, frankly.”