Leave mud out of the judge race

From the beginning, we have felt that Gay Sandoval has taken the

high road in her quest to unseat Judge Ronald Kline.

Sandoval admirably initiated a write-in campaign against the

embattled jurist who, despite facing charges of molestation and

possession of child pornography, was running unopposed to retain his

Superior Court seat.

The result: Because of the write-in campaign he did not win his

seat back and instead there is a two-way race between Sandoval, the

second-highest write-in vote getter and John Adams, the top write-in

vote getter.

Kline ultimately asked a judge to remove him from the ballot. But

if it wasn’t for Sandoval, who knows if Kline would have ever dropped

out of the race.

With such a laudable track record, we must say we felt a pang of

disappointment last week when that same Gay Sandoval, a former

columnist at this paper, seemed to switch course and decide to take

the low road in her campaign against Adams.

Sandoval sent out letters to Adams’s supporters alleging that his

campaign Web site contained incorrect information about how much time

he served as a private practice attorney.

Sandoval also decided to dredge up personal information regarding

Adams’s divorce and child support case.

This sort of mudslinging is beneath people who want to become

judges. The information on Adams’s background certainly provided no

insight on his ability to hear cases.

Instead, we encourage Sandoval to provide voters with a clear

picture of why she is the better candidate. She needs to tout her

qualifications, not seek out what she believes are the personal flaws

in her opponent.

There are plenty of issues that judges must contend with that are

near and dear to voters. Let’s hear from Sandoval and Adams on just

how they stand.

Democracy will be better for it.