Mark Cohen Editor-in-chief

About this Site

Learning about the candidates in a judicial race can be difficult. Such races are not highly publicized in the general media and most candidates have traditionally done only a very limited amount of campaigning. Most judicial races are uncontested. With 100 seats or so up for grabs in any given judicial election, incumbents historically have run unopposed about 90 percent of the time. However, the problem remains: How can a voter get information on the races where a judicial seat is contested?

Four years ago, Minnesota Lawyer started a Web site devoted to providing information to voters on judicial candidates. We are pleased to once again be able to provide voters with this service to help them cast a meaningful vote in the upcoming judicial election.

We asked each of the candidates for a contested judicial seat to provide biographical information and short answers to a set of questions about his or her candidacy. The information that we received will be posted on this site -- as well as photos of the candidates who chose to provide one. Minnesota Lawyer’s intention in posting this information is to provide a forum whereby the public can access the candidates’ own statements. Minnesota Lawyer does not endorse any of the statements and has not verified the completeness or accuracy of any of the answers.

We would like to thank the candidates for participating in this public-information effort. The response was excellent. All of the incumbents and all but two of the challengers involved in contested races chose to respond to our request for information.

The Supreme Court and Court of Appeals races will appear on ballots statewide. District Court judgeships are broken down by Judicial District. Only the District Court races in your particular Judicial District will appear on your ballot. If you are unsure what Judicial District you are in, you can find out by checking out the map on this Web site.

Please let us know if you have any feedback on this site. We are always looking for ways to improve it and make it more useful. You can reach me at: (612) 584-1531 or by e-mail at: mark.cohen@minnlawyer.com. Thanks again for visiting our site – and don’t forget to vote!

Mark A. Cohen
Editor-in-chief
Minnesota Lawyer