Robert Gardner -- THE VERDICT

Whatever my shortcomings as a judge may have been, no one can deny that I

was a superlative politician.

I was appointed to the Superior Court by then-Gov. Earl Warren. As far as

the conservative Republicans who ran Orange County were concerned, that

made me an object of suspicion. One year Warren carried every county in

the state but one: Orange County.

Since Warren represented what was known as the progressive branch of the

party, he was, in the eyes of Orange County conservatives, somewhere

between a Communist and a Socialist.

So that was the first black mark against me. The second, was that I came

from Balboa -- Sin City -- which had lived for years off incomes derived

from rum running, bootlegging and illegal gambling.

All of this did not bode well for a long career as a judge.

In the year before my first election, I went on a one-man campaign to

try to counter those black marks. Every night I spoke at a PTA meeting.

Every noon at a service club. Came the end of that year, and the

establishment ran a highly respected Municipal Court judge from Santa Ana

against me.

I won by a 3-1 margin. I carried every precinct in the county. I

attributed it all to my political skills.

Years later, I was appointed to the Court of Appeal by then-Gov. Ronald

Reagan. No problem with the conservatives here, and by this time Balboa

had shed its tarnished image. There were other challenges, however.

The Court of Appeal is a rather obscure court, just a bunch of faceless

men and women writing dry-as-dust opinions, either affirming or reversing

decisions made by Superior Court judges.

As an appellate judge, you have practically no contact with the public.

You also don’t have an opponent when election time comes around. The

ballot just says, “Should Robert Gardner be retained as the Presiding

Justice of the Second Division of the Fourth District Court of Appeal.”

Voters check yes or no.

Well, for years that made the elections cinches.

Then sometime in the middy, an anti-judge fever swept the state, and the

percentage of yes votes for the Court of Appeal justices began to fall.

I viewed my election with some trepidation, but I didn’t go back to the

PTA and service clubs. The territory was too big. The counties I covered

included not only a much more populous Orange County, but also Inyo,

Riverside and San Bernardino counties, where I was completely unknown. I

received 95% approval.

And that’s when the realization hit.

Gardner is a magic political name. Had I known that, I would have run for

higher office. Now it’s too late. Eighty-eight is probably a little old

for a campaign tour.

It’s just as well.

If I went to New Hampshire this time of year I would probably get

pneumonia and die. And even a man with the name of Gardner can’t be

elected president when he’s dead.

* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and former judge. His

column runs Tuesdays.