Mark Cohen Editor-in-chief

Learning about the candidates in a judicial election can be difficult. Historically, such races have not received much media attention, leaving voters to their own devices to find information.

In order to assist voters in this quest, Minnesota Lawyer offers this judicial election website. We asked each of the candidates for a contested judicial seat to provide a photo, biographical information and short answers to a set of questions about his or her candidacy. Minnesota Lawyer's purpose 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.

Judicial elections in Minnesota are nonpartisan, so the candidates do not run under a party affiliation. Most judges (typically about 90 percent) are not challenged and run for their seat unopposed. This year, there are a total of 12 contested races - two for the Supreme Court, one for the Court of Appeals and nine for seats on the District Court bench. The appellate races are statewide and appear on all ballots; District Court races appear on your ballot only for the races in your particular district. (There are 10 Judicial Districts in Minnesota; to find which district is yours, click here.

Minnesota Lawyer is an independent information source that publishes a statewide legal newspaper (click here for subscription information), a website (www.minnlawyer.com) and a blog (www.minnlawyer.blogspot.com). Minnesota Lawyer is owned by Finance and Commerce Inc., a subsidiary of Minneapolis-based Dolan Media. We provide this information as a public service to voters. Finance and Commerce has been serving the informational needs of the Minnesota legal community for more than six decades.

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 mark.cohen@minnlawyer.com.

Thanks again for visiting our site - and don't forget to vote!

Mark A. Cohen
Editor-in-chief
Minnesota Lawyer