The political landscape of Jefferson County’s 23rd judicial circuit has shifted after the Nov. 8 general election, but the circuit’s presiding judge says the scales of justice will remain in balance.
The 23rd circuit, historically dominated by Democrats, will line up differently in 2017, after four Republicans breezed to election, joining four other Republicans in the 12-judge circuit. Five, if you count Div. 15 Associate Circuit Judge Shannon Dougherty, a Democrat who has announced that if she chooses to run in 2018, she’ll do so as a member of the GOP.
Circuit Clerk Mike Reuter did some research and reports that the 23rd Circuit has never had a Republican majority.
However, Circuit Judge Darrell Missey, who was named the circuit’s presiding judge earlier this year, said party affiliation will make no difference.
“I have argued from the first day that I ran for office that judges should not have partisan elections,” said Missey, a Republican who was elected to the Div. 2 bench in 2014 after serving as an associate circuit judge for 12 years. “We’re not Democrats or Republicans, we’re lawyers and we should work as professionals and work as a team. That’s the way we will proceed.”
Newcomers
All four of the Republican winners on Nov. 8 are newcomers to the bench.
■ In Div. 1, where an open seat was created when former Presiding Judge Bob Wilkins was obligated to retire in September before his 70th birthday, Republican Wes Yates, 58, Hillsboro, the county counselor, defeated Democrat Joe Rathert, who will continue to serve as the county’s Municipal Court judge.
■ In Div. 3, Republican Dianna Bartels, 50, Arnold, an attorney in private practice, unseated incumbent Democrat Nathan B. Stewart, who was trying for his second six-year term in Div. 3. Stewart also was an associate circuit court judge for six years and the family court commissioner for six years before that.
■ Municipal Court prosecutor Vic Melenbrink, 35, Arnold, a Republican, unseated Democrat Pat Riehl, a 10-year judicial veteran appointed to the Div. 5 bench earlier this year by Gov. Jay Nixon after he appointed Lisa Page to the Missouri Court of Appeals.
■ Democrat Travis Partney, who filled Riehl’s Div. 13 associate circuit court spot, was turned out by Republican Katherine Hardy Senkel, 46, Festus, who has a private practice in Farmington.
“The voters in Jefferson County were consistent,” Missey said.
Add those four newcomers to three other Republicans who won in 2014 – associate circuit judges Jeffrey Coleman (Div. 10), Brenda Stacey (Div. 11) and Tony Manasala (Div. 12) and Missey realizes that a once-veteran circuit has turned green as well as red.
“We’ve got a lot of new blood,” he said. “There are good things about that. I’ve met with all four of the new judges, and I think we’ll have a good makeup. I’m working on assignments now. By the time that they’re all sworn in, I should know what kind of dockets they will handle, to try to emphasize people’s strengths. There’s a lot of potential along those lines. We’ll do just fine.”
Training offered
Missey said the neophytes will be busy.
“They’ll be able to hear cases as soon as they’re sworn in,” he said, “but soon after they get started, the Office of State Court Administrators runs a great course for new judges. It’s a refresher course on every aspect of the law, since (as attorneys) we tend to specialize in some areas rather than others. The class also gives a lot of practical advice on how to do things. All four will have a lot to learn, but they’re willing to put in the work to accomplish that.”
Missey said he doesn’t know whether the class is compulsory.
“People always have gone. I don’t know of anybody who hasn’t,” he said. “When I was elected, I just assumed that I had to go. I found it very useful, and I would encourage any new judge to go.”
He said all judges are given regular updates, and that there is plenty of support to be found in the halls of the courthouse.
“We help each other around here,” he said. “There are lots of teachers and mentors, and that will continue with the new people on board. This is truly a team.”
That team includes Democratic circuit judges Mark Stoll and Troy Cardona, both elected in 2006, and associate circuit judge Timothy Miller, who was elected in 2010.
He said the judges who are leaving left their marks.
“We’ve lost a lot of years of experience,” he said. “They’re all my colleagues. They will be missed. They’ve been contributors to this county and were extremely valuable. They won’t be forgotten. I will personally take the things I learned from them and apply them going forward.”
Yates takes over in Div. 1
Yates said he had no expectations heading into his campaign against Rathert.
“I was hopeful, certainly. But it was kind of bittersweet victory,” he said. “I like Joe. I work with Joe to some extent, and I didn’t want to see him lose.”
He acknowledged that he doesn’t have a lot of time to prep for his new job, but said he’ll be ready.
“Hopefully, the last 24 or 25 years have prepared me,” he said. “But every judge who has ever sat on the bench has at one time been a new judge.”
He said he won’t wear the English-style barrister’s wig that he sported occasionally on the campaign trail.
“I’ll have it in my office, but no, I won’t wear it on the bench,” he said. “It was a gift from my college roommate, and it’s a treasured gift. I wore it in parades over the summer – when it wasn’t too hot – and I think it gave people a way to connect me with my name.”
County Executive Ken Waller said the search for a successor for Yates, as well as Melenbrink, already is underway.
Rathert could not be reached for comment.
Bartels takes over in Div. 3
The win by the relatively unknown Bartels over Stewart, the most experienced jurist of the four Democrats who stood for election, probably was the biggest surprise for most election observers.
Count Bartels among them.
“I think everyone was shocked by the whole election,” she said. “I thought it would be tighter. For much of the evening, it was a pretty tight race until the final numbers came in. I don’t really remember what I was thinking other than it was a shock.”
Stewart, however, had a different notion.
“I knew it was going to be tough,” he said. “I knew there was a potential for it to happen the way it did. It wasn’t the desired outcome, but I can’t say I was necessarily surprised.”
He said in a way, he doesn’t take the results of the election personally.
“It is probably a comfort that it was a blowout all around. At least I wasn’t the only Democrat to lose. But I ran a good, clean, positive campaign, and I’m proud of that. I don’t think there’s anything else I could have done.”
He said he doesn’t know what he will do after the first of the year, when his current term expires.
“I’ll have to find a job somehow,” he said. “I’d like to find a job practicing law, hopefully somewhere in the county. At this point, my options are open.”
However, he said, he doesn’t foresee changing parties to take another run at the bench.
“I don’t see that happening,” he said.
Stewart gave a word of advice to the newcomers.
“Work hard and pay attention to people who already have experience,” he said.
Melenbrink new Div. 5 judge
Melenbrink said the long election campaign was both a grind and energizing.
“This was a first-time experience for me. It was exhausting,” he said. “But I enjoyed getting out there and knocking on doors and meeting people. They seemed curious that someone running for judge would be out talking with them. But it was interesting to hear their concerns in general. Only a few of them had anything to say about judge stuff, though.”
He said he leaves behind his old job as Municipal Court prosecutor with some trepidation.
“I will miss it,” he said. “Whoever ends up replacing me will get a great job. There are only a couple of jobs that I would have been willing to leave that job for, and I’m really fortunate to have the opportunity to do one of them.”
He said he’s looking forward to his new duties.
“It’s going to be a learning curve. Any judge who thinks that he or she goes into it knowing everything there is to know about the law is delusional. There are always things to learn. but I like learning new stuff. But I think it will be important to remember that as a judge, my job will not to be the smartest person in the room. My job will be to exercise judgment and go into cases with an open mind.”
He said he has a lot to do between now and the first of the year, including buying a judicial robe.
“I guess I need to figure out where to get one of them. I think I’m going to go with black, though. All the people this year are talking about yellow or green,” he said, tongue in cheek, “but I like the traditional black. And do I need to get my own gavel? Or is there a closetful of gavels in the courthouse? I’ll need to find out those things.”
While Melenbrink sorts those issues out, Riehl said she is left to ponder what happened.
“It was heartbreaking. I’m disappointed,” she said. “While I don’t think you can rule out anything happening, those numbers weren’t expected.”
She said it’s difficult not to take her defeat personally.
“All politics is personal, particularly local politics,” she said. “But the voters clearly expressed that they wanted change, so they elected people in some cases who had little or no experience. I hope those people are at peace with the change they wanted.”
While she didn’t rule out switching parties in a future election (“I’d never say never,” she said) but has no immediate plans.
“I’m kind of in an interesting spot. I can’t draw retirement for another nine months,” said Riehl, 59. “Know anybody who’s hiring?”
Asked whether a judgeship on her resume might make her more attractive to potential employers, she said, “I’m hoping.”
She also offered advice to her successors.
“Hit the ground running,” she said. “Don’t take yourself too seriously, and be nice to the court clerks.”
She said the disappointment over the loss doesn’t cancel out her joy at being appointed to the Div. 5 seat in February.
“I have no regrets,” she said. “No risk, no reward. Being a circuit judge was something I always wanted to do, so when I had the opportunity, I took it.”
Senkel new Div. 13 judge
Partney, the other judge affected by Page’s ascension, also said he doesn’t regret his short stay on the bench.
Partney, who was working in the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, was appointed to succeed Riehl in March.
“It put me in a position to serve the county, and it was an absolutely wonderful opportunity to be given this chance by the Governor’s Office,” he said. “They needed someone to fill the spot, and I’m honored I was chosen. I’d do it all over in a heartbeat.”
He, too, said he doesn’t consider his defeat a personal one.
“It’s pretty clear what happened,” he said. “I think it reflects more a demographic shift than a reaction. But when every single member of a party loses, you have to think that there wasn’t much you can do. In my own head, it was like your car being hit by a meteor. There’s not much you can do about it.”
He said he doesn’t know how he will earn a living in 2017.
“I’m not sure what’s next. There are options open to me. I’m looking through them,” he said.
He said he doesn’t believe returning to the courthouse as a lawyer rather than a judge would be unsettling.
“I don’t think it’s going to be strange,” he said. “It’s not like I was here six or seven years. When all was said and done, I will have worn that robe for nine months.”
He said he doesn’t rule out another run at a judgeship, but doesn’t believe it would be on the Republican ticket.
“I’d love to be a judge again, absolutely,” he said. “But I’m a Democrat. If you’re going to be a judge, you should be consistent. I’m not thinking along those lines.”
As for Senkel, said she said she’s thinking ahead after her heady victory.
“I was so excited,” she said. “I’m only now starting to decompress. My parents are very realistic, and my mom told me that I should prepare myself to lose, that way I’d be ready for anything.”
She said she will be busy over the next month shuttering her law office, which has about 300 clients.
“I’m preparing a letter for my clients, letting them know that I’m suggesting another law firm, but they are free to choose any other attorney, and that I will hand-deliver their file to their law firm of choice. I will not charge for that. This isn’t their fault, and they shouldn’t have to pay to transfer their files.
“After I won the primary, I stopped taking a lot of cases that I knew would take longer than the end of the year to finish. If I had lost the general election, I would have had to get in gear again.”
She also said she’ll have to find a robe for her new job.
“One of my judge friends called me at 8 a.m. the day after the election and gave me a list of things to do. It was a big laundry list. One of them was to get a robe, and I’m on that. There are places online to get them. You know, they look a lot like choir robes. Fortunately, I was given a gavel as a good-luck gift at a fundraiser, so I don’t have to worry about that.”