My blog buddy sfmike has a very good post today about an important endorsement Michael Nava received from Peter Keane, former dean of Golden Gate University of Law. Keane accuses the San Francisco Judiciary of essentially performing a shakedown on the local top corporate law firms to make sure Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer retained his seat.
Ulmer is an appointee of Schwarzenegger, and like many such appointees, he comes from a large corporate law firm. The fear in the judiciary stems not just from their sense of entitlement that an appointment by a governor should be a ticket to a lifetime job, but that people who will have a natural bias towards corporate clients that appear before them need to be retained. Michael Nava does not have that bias and for that reason, he is better qualified to be a truly impartial judge.
His election will be an important step towards reform, a battle that concerned citizens for good government must fight with our ballots against entrenched interests, whether they call themselves Democrats, Republicans or independents. If you are a San Francisco voter, please put your mark next to Michael Nava's name on ballot due this Tuesday.
