Former State Se
nator and Democrat candidate for Lt. Governor Hollis French’s bid for a judicial appointment has ended. According to the Alaska Judicial Council website French was found to be “statutorily ineligible for this appointment.” According to a staff member the Judicial Council ruled French failed to meet the requirement that to be appointed applicants must have been actively practicing law for the 5 years immediately prior to their appointment.
French had been one of twelve people applying for the Anchorage Superior Court seat of outgoing Judge Michael Spaan.
It is unclear how good French’s chances were for the appointment even if he had been deemed eligible. According to the Alaska Bar Association’s Judicial Survey, which asks members of the bar to rate judicial candidates in areas such as professional competence, fairness, and integrity, French scored only an overall rating of 3.5 on a 1-5 scale, with 5 being best. Only one applicant scored worse.
You can see the full breakdown of all the applicants scores here.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
