A court of appeals judge is running against an attorney with years of appellate experience in the only contested race for the Arkansas Supreme Court in 2014.
Judge Robin Wynne of Fordyce and Tim Cullen of Maumelle are vying for the seat vacated by Justice Donald Corbin, who is not running for re-election after more than two decades on the bench. The winner of the May 20 election will join the seven-member panel for an eight-year term.
Two other seats on the court will be included on the ballot, but have only one candidate. Justice Karen Baker is seeking reelection and Court of Appeals Judge Rhonda Wood is running for the position currently held by Justice Cliff Hoofman, who was appointed to the bench to replace Justice Robert Brown in November 2012. Appointees are barred from running for the seat that they've temporarily filled.
Both candidates in the contested race touted the importance of ethics on the court, but most of the attention to the race was drawn late last week to an advertisement against Cullen criticizing him for his courtroom defense of a sex offender who targeted children.
Cullen said he was running for the seat because he wants to restore the public's trust in elected officials, which he said has been dampened by recent events involving former Democratic state Treasurer Martha Shoffner and former Lt. Gov. Mark Darr.
Shoffner was convicted in March on 14 extortion and bribery charges after she was caught on camera accepting bribes from a bond broker. Darr resigned Feb. 1 after the Arkansas Ethics Commission fined him $11,000 for misspending campaign funds and taxpayer dollars.
"I'm running because I think there are too many examples of our public elected officials behaving badly and I think it's crucial, particularly for the supreme court, to be above reproach," Cullen said.
Cullen said he would like to see the Supreme Court consider putting limits on the kinds of gifts that judges can receive. He said that although it's within the rules to accept certain gifts if it's reported, he would not accept any gifts if they were offered.
"I do have a problem with any gift of significant monetary value being given to a judge because of their judicial service. I think it calls their impartiality into question," Cullen said.
In her 2012 statement of financial interest, Justice Courtney Hudson Goodson reported a trip to Italy, valued at $50,000, that was paid for by Fayetteville attorney W.H. Taylor. In her 2011 statement of financial interest, she reported a $12,000 Caribbean cruise paid for by Taylor.
The trips were noted in news accounts at the time.
The justice reported receiving no gifts in her most recent report.
Cullen said he is the best candidate for the job because he also brings extensive experience as an appellate attorney who has handled a variety of appeals, including cases involving worker's compensation, unemployment, capital murder and religious freedom.
Wynne said he was running for the high court because he felt it was a "good next step for me."
"I've certainly enjoyed being on the [appeals] court and I feel with my experience ... it has equipped me well," Wynne said.
The judge said he has a lot of legal experience from his private practice and from the more than 190 opinions he has written in his time at the Court of Appeals.
Wynne said he also did not believe judges should receive gifts and that he would support a review of limits of gifts to sitting judges. He said he would also refuse gifts if he was elected to the high court.
"I think that that creates a sort of appearance of impropriety and I don't think that that's a good idea," Wynne said.
The latest campaign finance reports filed by the candidates showed Wynne led Cullen by more than $50,000.
Wynne said that he felt like he had broad support from people who want to see him on the court.
"I think anytime you have more money than your opponent you have the ability to do more publicizing of your campaign and I think that certainly could make a difference, but that remains to be seen," Wynne said.
In an ad against Cullen, the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, an organization based in Lake Ridge, Va., that says it is the "largest coalition of law enforcement professionals, crime victims and concerned citizens," purchased air time to run the commercial over four days at a cost, Cullen estimates, of $200,000. The group would not provide a copy of the ad to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and did not respond to questions about its content, instead referring a reporter to comments on its website.
It's unclear who donated the money to the group that went for the Arkansas advertising.
The group said in a news release that it was targeting Cullen for comments he made while representing a man who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and attempted enticement of a minor.
In that case, Cullen was the court-appointed attorney for Leonard D'Andrea of Wyoming, who was sentenced to 180 months, or 15 years, in prison, which Cullen said was outside the sentencing guidelines of between 78 to 97 months.
The group issued a statement after the ad's launch that said Cullen referred to child pornography as a "victimless crime" and that he tried to get his client out of prison early.
Cullen said in an interview that he argued that the sentence should not be enhanced because there was not an "actual" victim. The man had traveled to Arkansas to meet up with a person he believed was an underage girl, but was actually a police officer, Cullen said.
The ad began airing on Friday and Cullen responded with his own ad called "The Truth." In Cullen's ad, he says he has three children of his own and that he doesn't believe child pornography is a victimless crime.
"They are despicable for trying to exploit sexually abused children for political gain," Cullen says in the ad.
Cullen said in an interview that his campaign sent an email to Wynne's campaign asking him to repudiate the ad, but had not received a response by Friday afternoon.
"Those are grotesque, difficult cases but our constitution provides that everyone is entitled to a lawyer," Cullen said in an interview.
Linda Napper, Wynne's campaign consultant, said in a statement that the judge's campaign learned about the commercials on Thursday.
"Neither Judge Wynne nor his campaign had any knowledge or involvement with this purchase nor the subject matter of the commercials. We had produced our own campaign commercial that began running on the first day of early voting. Our commercial focuses on Judge Wynne's experience and qualifications. We have run a positive campaign and will continue to do so," Napper said.
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said in a statement that it does not endorse candidates but that they "strongly deplore attacks on any attorney ... arising out of the attorney's representation of clients in criminal matters."
"The idea of attacking someone simply for fulfilling the mandate of the United States Constitution to provide every accused person with a defense attorney is inconsistent with the nation's fundamental values. ... To suggest that one's qualifications for the bench are diminished for having lived up to the ideal of the right to counsel is an ill-conceived line of attack," the group's president, Jerry J. Cox, said.
A Section on 05/12/2014