by David Chapman
Staff Writer
The August elections might be months away, but it’s campaign time for the judicial hopefuls of the Fourth Judicial Circuit.
Mark Hulsey III, Adrian Soud, Virginia Norton and Frederic Buttner were all on hand at Wednesday’s Jacksonville Women Lawyers Association luncheon to meet and greet and make their pitch for votes in the Aug. 26 election. Hulsey and Soud are running for the Group 11 seat currently held by Circuit Court Judge Charlie Mitchell, who will retire. Norton and Buttner are running for the Group 28 seat currently held by Circuit Judge Bernard Nachman, who is also retiring.
The candidates had lunch with the lawyers, first splitting up per table for informal discussions before making formal introductions to the crowd and describing their experience and endorsements.
Each candidate touched on different issues as they made their introductions, hitting on a number of topics before taking questions from the audience.
JWLA President Susan Haag asked each of the candidates what the one thing each would do in their practice to make Duval County’s Circuit Court system more efficient.
Buttner said that it’s hard to make every hearing and that he’d be more lenient on hearings and allow hearings by phone.
Norton said she’d work with the system and try to improve the technology in the courthouse, noting that it would save time and money.
Hulsey said that in his experience the motion to set should be the first thing in a pre-trial conference and that in its current state the pre-trial conference is often a waste of time.
Soud relayed a story of a judge he had worked with who was completely available and offered his personal contact information for issues that might arise when it wasn’t most convenient. He said he’d follow suit so that cases would be able to progress more smoothly.
The candidates ended their session by discussing their mentors in the business, with Soud, Buttner and Hulsey mentioning their fathers, each of whom was a judge. Norton cited a former judge she befriended as a child and her current boss, Chief Deputy of the General Counsel Cindy Laquidara.
“But I’ll tell you my father is a very nice man,” said Norton, which made the crowd laugh.
Each candidate will hit the campaign trail between now and the election to secure area votes for their respective elections.