PHOENIX (AP) - Republican Doug Ducey has become the Arizona governor to appoint the most judges in the state court system.
Ducey on Friday tied former Gov. Bruce Babbitt’s record of 68 judicial appointments with his appointment of a new Court of Appeals judge before he then appointed three new Maricopa County Superior Court judges to reach 71 appointments, the Arizona Capitol Times reported.
Ducey also set records for appointing women and people from different political parties or affiliation than his own, the Capitol Times reported.
Ducey appointed Cynthia Bailey, a current Maricopa County Superior Court judge and a fellow Republican, to fill the Court of Appeals vacancy created by the resignation of Judge Diane M. Johnsen, a Democrat.
Ducey on Friday appointed Marvin Davis, Suzanne Nicholls and Michael Rassas to fill three vacancies on the Maricopa County Superior Court bench resulting from a retirement and two resignations.
Bailey’s elevation from that bench to the Court of Appeals will create another vacancy for Ducey to fill by choosing among nominees chosen by a state commission that screens applicants for Maricopa County openings.
The state’s 23rd governor, Ducey was first elected in 2014 and reelected in 2018.
Assuming he serves out his second term, he still has over 2.5 years to go in office. That makes it likely that he’ll make numerous additional judicial appointments as current judges retire or leave the bench under other circumstances.
Under Arizona’s so-called merit selection system, governors make appointments to fill vacancies on the Arizona Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals and Superior Court benches in Maricopa, Pima, Pinal and Coconino counties by working off lists of nominees presented by commissions that screen applicants.
Superior Court judges in the other 11 counties are elected though governors make appointments to fill midterm vacancies.
Bailey is a Republican whom Ducey chose from a list of 10 nominees.
Nicholls and Rassas also are Republicans. They and Davis, a Democrat, were chosen from a list of 13 nominees.
Babbitt, a Democrat, was Arizona’s elected attorney general when he was elevated to the governor’s office in 1978 upon the death of fellow Democrat Wesley Bolin. Babbitt later that year was elected to the first of his two full four-year terms of governor.
When Babbitt was governor, Pinal and Coconino counties still elected their Superior Court judges and there were also fewer Superior Court seats between Maricopa and Pima counties. Consequently, there were fewer vacancies for Babbitt to fill.
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