PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Common Cause Rhode Island Friday blasted Governor Chafee's judicial picks as evidence that the judicial nominating process is failing to ensure that judges are chosen on merit, not politics.
"Our merit selection process has been undermined by all of the actors involved," executive director John Marion said.
He noted that successive governors have "ignored" the 21-day deadline for picking judges from lists provided by the Judicial Nominating Commission and that state lawmakers pass law each year allowing the governor to draw nominees from years-old lists.
"All of the dysfunction in the system is on display with today's appointments. The timing of these picks, and the vacancies they create for two magistrate positions, further raise suspicion that judicial vacancies are being used as part of the end-of-session bargaining among legislative leaders and the governor," he said.
Common Cause defines its mission as promoting "representative democracy by ensuring open, ethical, accountable, effective government processes..."