Oregon Governor Kate Brown appoints Laura Cromwell to Jackson County Circuit Court

Laura Cromwell, from Facebook

Judge Pat Crain is retiring this week. It creates a vacancy.


Governor Brown appointed a successor.  It is part of an orderly succession of judges.

Laura Cromwell will need to run for office to retain the seat. She began running a long time ago.

An informal system is in place, as tradition and practice. A sitting judge usually does not fill out his or her final term prior to retirement. Some time prior to the end of the term the judge resigns to leave a vacancy. This allows the governor to do a review of the people who put forward their names to fill the vacancy. The governor talks to leaders in the local legal community and others. The governor looks for special skills and potential disqualifying problems. 

The governor picks someone. That person becomes a judge and serves for some short period of time and then runs as the incumbent. This gives them a leg up in the election that comes up shortly.

The justification for the process is that voters have a hard time discerning the qualities needed in a judge--as contrasted with a legislator representative--and therefore the governor is doing a service. A judge's work is supposed to be non-political, and it is generally out of the public eye. The governor works to determine those non-political qualities (work experience, temperament, etc.) and theoretically is helping the process, not damaging it. The public does get a vote, but voters also get, in effect, a gubernatorial recommendation, to be ratified by the voters.

Some people object to this process. They say that there not being an "open seat" hurts the democratic process of citizens picking their judges. Often they don't trust or respect the recommendation of the sitting governor.

Kate Brown picked Laura Cromwell, an Assistant District Attorney. I have seen Cromwell out, getting around, getting known. She was doing the sorts of things an attorney with aspirations for public office would do. Beth Heckert, the current District Attorney, introduced Cromwell to me. Heckert has a good reputation.

From Facebook

Why Cromwell?  She is young for a judge. She is married to a Medford policeman, which may create some issues within the criminal defense bar and their clients. There would be reasons to decide on someone other than her, but Brown went with Cromwell.

Kate Brown's press release said "Laura Cromwell is a hard-working prosecutor with an unbounded talent, who is both compassionate and fair. I have no doubt that she will serve the people of Jackson County well as a circuit court judge."

I know Cromwell was well recommended by the local legal community, but so were others. Possibly the key difference was that she has the ability and desire to do the political work necessary to hold the seat in the election in November. 

Cromwell's Facebook page for August 11 says, "So, I've decided to make one of the scariest (and hopefully rewarding) career moves that I have ever made. As some of my Jackson County friends are aware, Judge Crain has recently announced her retirement. So I'm announcing my candidacy for Jackson County Circuit Court Judge!"

She goes on to say she plans on raising money, walking door to door, meeting groups, putting up lawn signs, doing all the things candidates do.

Was this dispositive? Who knows? Kate Brown made the decision herself. But governors want to put their stamp on the justice system, and Cromwell was acting like a candidate. Indeed, she had filed for the position before she got the appointment, and she was acting like a candidate months prior to that.

Once a judge is well seated into a position they almost always run un-opposed. But before then, they need to act like a candidate for public office. Cromwell did.