Fresh Loaf

Perry McGuire has never argued before the Georgia Court of Appeals, is a harshly partisan politician running for a nonpartisan post, and was deemed in a State Bar poll of attorneys to be the least qualified in a field of seven candidates this year for an open seat on the Court of Appeals.

But McGuire’s likely to come in first after tomorrow’s vote. And, if he doesn’t win outright, he may be favored to win the seat in a Dec. 2 runoff. Unless you do something about it.

McGuire — who was a socially conservative warrior in the state Senate during the 1990s — has the endorsement of Georgia Right to Life, a favorable voter’s guide from Sadie Field’s Georgia Christian Alliance, and support from the farthest right elements in Georgia’s Republican Party.

He also has raised more money than any other Appeals Court candidate: $243,000. Most of that came in the form of a $200,000 loan from himself to his own campaign, which is certain to be paid off by special interests should he win the seat he covets on the state’s second-highest court.

Luckily, there are four highly qualified candidates for the judgeship (each of whom received a vote of confidence from 70 percent of attorneys in the State Bar poll). Unluckily, those four candidates and two others could split the non-McGuire vote so badly that the second-place finisher will have a hard time catching up in time for the Dec. 2 primary.

It’s truly difficult to figure out which of the four most-qualified candidates — Sara Doyle, Bruce Edenfield, Christopher McFadden and Michael Meyer von Bremen — would be the best Appeals Court judge. In an earlier article, we weren’t able to settle on a choice. And the AJC punted away its responsibility to guide voters in this particular obscure-but-important contest.

In an endorsement, the AJC’s editorial page only narrowed the candidates down to the best four, while conservative columnist Jim Wooten dismissed McGuire’s obvious lack of qualifications and backed him. End result: The state’s most powerful media outlet gave a bit boost to the least qualified candidate and didn’t help any of the four most qualified candidates.

Here’s our take on the race: Doyle’s a smart, young and respected trial attorney from Inman Park who’s mainly been involved in civil cases. She’s argued quite a bit before the Court of Appeals, but also has the least overall experience of the four finalists.

Edenfield’s name may be familiar because members of his family have served as judges in Georgia. Plus, he practiced for a long time in Atlanta before recently moving to Dahlonega. He’s an experienced trial lawyer and has raised tons of money from fellow attorneys.

McFadden, of Griffin, is a longtime appellate specialist who boasts that he literally “wrote the book on Georgia’s appeals” — a reference book he co-authored. He also worked with the Innocence Project to exonerate a wrongly convicted man named Robert Clark. But his narrow realm of expertise can be taken as a weakness as well, because he may have less insight for issues at the trial court level.

Meyer von Bremen is a state senator from Albany. Although he’s one of the few true intellects in the Senate (particularly on legal issues), you don’t see a lot of sexy quotes in the papers from Meyer von Bremen; he’s known for his, well, judicious temperament — often coming across as a bit more like a judge or professor than a politician.

It’s a measure of the respect others have for Meyer von Bremen that he’s won the support of moderate Republican politicians as well as Democrats — even though he’s the only candidate clearly identified as a Democrat.

We back him over Doyle, Edenfield and McFadden for two main reasons: First, Meyer von Bremen is more of a known quantity in public life — and the more people know about him, the more they seem to respect him.

Just as importantly, the threat posed by the religious right against Georgia’s impartial judiciary is real and substantial. McGuire’s choice of issues over the years shows that he’s not just “conservative” but that he readily pushes the kind of bigotry that the South needs to leave behind: McGuire’s opposition to civil partnerships for gays was the centerpiece of his campaign for state attorney general in 2006. He even told a Christian news organization that he wanted “homosexuality-affirming student clubs banned from the state’s schools” because allowing them would be “much like allowing a pedophile club or a gambling club to meet at school.”

Politicians who try to advance their careers on the backs of minority groups should be run out of public life. They certainly need to be kept off the bench.

And the rest of us — liberal, centrist and conservative — need to unite behind the strongest alternative. Having played the political game for a decade — in his own low key way — Meyer von Bremen has the political chops to win such a fight.

(There are two other Georgia Court of Appeals judgeships on the ballot, but neither of those seats is contested.)

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Tags: 2008 election, Bruce Edenfield, Christopher McFadden, Georgia-Court-of-Appeals, Michael Meyer von Bremen, Perry McGuire, Sara Doyle.