by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
High noon came and went on Friday, the qualifying deadline for Circuit judges looking to keep their jobs for six more years. Thirteen Circuit judges qualified. One drew opposition. Fernandina Beach attorney John Joseph Cascone filed paperwork with the Supervisor of Elections Office to run for the 4th Judicial Circuit Court Group 5 seat, currently held by Judge W. Gregg McCaulie.
Cascone paid the $5,200 qualifying fee last week, making him an official challenger to Judge McCaulie.
“I consider myself to be very capable in the courtroom,” said Cascone over lunch Monday. “It is not the kind of thing that comes with simply graduating from law school, walking into your office every day, working five or six hours and going home. I’ve been out of law school 21 years. I’ve been practicing over 18. I’ve always figured it was going to happen. I was going to one day do it. As a child I knew I was going to be a lawyer. I’ve pretty much always known I wanted to be a judge. The timing seemed right to me. To me this is the race I should be in.”
Unlike two years ago when Tyrie Boyer successfully ran a big money campaign against County Judge Hugh Fletcher, who was a subject of negative media coverage in the past, Cascone said he zeroed in on McCaulie’s seat based on a combination of personal considerations and savvy strategy. He maintains his decision was not based on Judge McCaulie’s past performance.
“I don’t know that he’s the weak one,” he said. “I don’t know that Gregg McCaulie is weak or isn’t weak. I have no idea about that. I can tell you that I went to the Secretary of State’s website to see what judges were up (for re-election, this term. A number of those people are personal family friends, either through myself, my parents or my siblings. As a matter of honor, I wouldn’t run against those people under any circumstance. Frankly, a couple of people on that list have more money than any 10 people you might pick out of the phone book. That would make it a strategically a foolish thing to do. With the remaining ones, [McCaulie] was an appointee, he had not faced election for the position and he was in a seat that I consider myself to be qualified for on the criminal bench. That’s what I’m running for. That’s what I hope to get.”
Cascone said he had considered running for the seat of Circuit Judge Alban Brooke, who will retire next year. Local attorneys David Gooding and Dan Wilensky are actively campaigning for the seat and have collectively raised over $160,000. A number of factors steered Cascone clear of the race.
“Two reasons,” he said. “One, that seat was already an open and active race when I made my final decision. Secondly, both of the people in that race are friends of mine. I like them both. I think they’re both highly qualified. I would not consider it an honorable thing to run against friends like that.”
For McCaulie, his campaign must begin in earnest.
“If nobody had filed against me, it would be over,” he said. “Now that I have opposition, it’s a full-fledged campaign. That’s why we’re elected officials.”
Both Cascone and McCaulie are in the infancy of their campaigns. Fundraisers, campaign staff and strategy minutia are still nebulous. Early on, McCaulie has enlisted the help of attorneys Bob Willis and Gary Pajcic. Cascone is assisted by his father and a number of close friends and family.
Cascone has never held public office but has one failed attempt at a judicial appointment a few years ago. The Jacksonville native is a graduate of Bishop Kenny High School, University of North Florida and South Texas College of Law in Houston. He has logged time in both the State Attorney’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office in Jacksonville. In 1989, he transferred to the Fernandina branch of the Public Defender’s Office. After four years, Cascone left public service to pursue a private practice. He is currently a board certified criminal lawyer attorney.
Cascone invited his skeptics to try to dig up dirt on him. “I can say the Gary Hart story,” he said, recalling the U.S. senator who challenged the media to follow him and they did: straight to a rendezvous with his lover. “Follow me if you want. My wife and I lead the most basic Middle America, small-town life you will ever see.”
He wouldn’t offer an estimated dollar figure that would allow him to publicly campaign widely and vigorously, instead suggesting a grass roots method.
“I’m not a high profile guy,” he said. “I’m not a show horse; I’m a work horse.”