The view from the Idea Center

I pride myself on making informed choices in the voting booth, but my standards slip in judicial elections.

In those “under the radar” elections, I usually follow the advice of newspaper editorial boards. When I haven’t been doing that reading, I do what I did during those torturous multiple-choice math tests in high school: I guess.

“Guessing can’t assure justice,”  Judge4Yourself.com says on its website. It’s a service of the nonpartisan Judicial Candidates Rating Coalition, a group of lawyers who have been rating Cuyahoga County’s judicial candidates since 2002.

The coalition released ratings for the Common Pleas Court candidates appearing on the March 17 primary ballot, the first set of evaluations since it overhauled its grading process to address complaints of racial bias and lack of transparency.

Start reading up on the candidates, so you won’t have to sing the “ Eeny Meeny” counting song in the voting booth.

One more thing: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is apparently escalating his feud with NPR. The State Department  barred NPR’s veteran State Department correspondent, Michele Kelemen, from traveling with Pompeo for his week-long trip to Europe and Central Asia.

Over the weekend, Pompeo got into an ugly, public spat with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly over questions about Ukraine.  The State Department Correspondents’ Association said the State Department is “retaliating” against NPR.

From picking judicial candidates to picking on an NPR reporter. How’s that for a pivot?

See you bright and early tomorrow morning on the radio,
Amy Eddings

Need to KnOH

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