How Judicial Elections Are Run.

Did you all see this column by my friend Hector Lombana on the ridiculous judicial elections farce that is ongoing in Broward?

He contrasts the free-for-all up there with the more informally regulated atmosphere here in Miami-Dade County.

Specifically, here's how Hector describes how things work down here:

The key to maintaining order in Miami-Dade judicial elections has been the informal partnership between the Cuban American Bar Association, the Florida Association for Women Lawyers, the Dade County Bar Association and other minority bar associations. This has resulted in informal mechanisms of peer pressure, fundraising, campaign practices supervision and political activism that have historically succeeded in dissuading and defeating unworthy candidates for judicial office.

What do you think of that?

That's the first time I've seen this formulation -- often discussed obviously among lawyers and judges, usually in far cruder terms -- articulated and laid out in print for the rubes (I mean, the public) to see.