On July 31st, the Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer Blog wrote a blog post about the concerns sitting Baltimore City Circuit Court judges John C. Themelis, Gale E. Rasin, and Barry G. Williams had about their “alphabetically challenged” last names in this year’s election. It appears as these sitting Baltimore judges have fought through that obstacle, defeating challengers Baltimore lawyer Nicholas J. Del Pizzo, III and Baltimore City District Court Judge Emanuel Brown. Similarly, the Baltimore County sitting judges up for election – Robert E. Cahill Jr., Judith C. Ensor, Timothy J. Martin, and Mickey J. Norman – also appear to have defeated their two challengers, William R. Buie III and Arthur M. Frank. These are early returns, but we expect the results to hold up.
Almost every Maryland lawyer I have spoken to regarding these contested elections dislikes this process of Maryland judges facing elections. Yet election and election it continues with no major effort to change the process.