Hearing on judge race set for today

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- A Costa Mesa attorney will be paying close attention to

a court ruling today that could determine whether her name will be added

to the November ballot for a Orange County Superior Court judgeship

election.

The hearing -- scheduled at 1:30 p.m. today in the Central Division of

Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana -- is the latest hurdle in

attorney Gay Sandoval’s path to unseat Superior Court Judge Ronald C.

Kline.

Kline faces charges of child molestation and child pornography, and is

now under house arrest as a result of those accusations.

Sandoval waged her uphill battle to defeat the besieged judge as soon

as she learned of the charges, saying she wanted to send a message to

Orange County children that voting adults would not just sit back and let

an accused child molester keep an elected position.

As a result of her efforts to mount the write-in campaign, the

preliminary race was opened to 11 challengers.

The combination of challengers kept Kline from winning a majority of

votes in April, forcing the November runoff. It also prompted Kline to

request that his name be removed from the November ballot.

His wish was granted last week, leaving write-in candidate John Adams

-- who was the lead vote getter in the primary, just ahead of Kline -- as

the only candidate in the race for Superior Court Judge Office No. 21.

Sandoval was the third-place vote-getter.

Now, what started as a crusade for the children has turned into a

quest for choice, as Sandoval turns her battle from the campaign trail to

the courtroom in an effort to get her name added to the ballot.

“The voters need a choice,” Sandoval said.

Sandoval, a former Daily Pilot columnist, said she asked the

registrar’s office to put her name on the ballot along with Adams’ but

was told she needed a court ruling. Terri Niccum, spokeswoman for the

registrar’s office confirmed that, saying a legal entity would have to

determine the matter.

“As I understand it, we don’t have any power to put someone [on the

ballot] unless a judge has mandated it,” Niccum said.

Sandoval began the legal proceedings, basing her legal challenge on an

election code section that she says calls for the next highest

vote-getter to fill a ballot vacancy for a nonpartisan office.

Adams received 33.2% of the vote, followed closely by Kline at 32% and

Sandoval earned 10.8%. With Kline’s successful removal from the ballot,

Sandoval secures the spot as the second-highest vote-getter.

Adams said he has not seen Sandoval’s formal request and wouldreserve

comment until he reads it.

If voting statistics don’t make a strong case for her, the amount of

effort she has put into the campaign should be taken into consideration,

Sandoval said. After all, Kline’s name would never have appeared on the

ballot to give voters the chance to write in other alternatives.

“I was the first one to get him on the ballot, I was successful in

getting him off the ballot, but now the ballot has a hole in it, and that

hole has to be filled,” Sandoval said.