Judge's removal stands as warning
A Times EditorialPublished May 26, 2006
The state's youngest circuit court judge just learned an old lesson from the Florida Supreme Court: The end doesn't justify the means.
Judge John Renke III of New Port Richey and his campaign cohorts "created a fictitious candidate, funded his candidacy in violation of Florida's election laws and successfully perpetrated a fraud on the electorate in securing his election" to the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court bench, the court said Thursday. The court removed the 36-year-old Renke from the bench because of his egregious behavior in the 2002 campaign.
Renke used $95,800 in illegal contributions from his father to finance a campaign misrepresenting himself as a seasoned litigator and incumbent judge. In truth, his seven years of legal experience equated to acting as a lowly paid law clerk with relevant trial experience limited to a single small-claims court case.
At a hearing in April, Supreme Court justices characterized Renke's actions as "buying an election," "gross misrepresentation," and "disingenuous." Thursday, they added a new description - fraud. They correctly ordered him off the bench, pending an appeal for a rehearing.
The court, for the second time in this case, wisely overruled the Judicial Qualifying Commission, which had recommended the younger Renke be fined $40,000 and reprimanded publicly. In 2004, the Supreme Court rejected as too lenient a settlement that would have halved the fine but suspended Renke for a month.
The JQC's flawed punishment proposal came in part because Renke's even-tempered performance as a family court judge had earned him the respect of the west Pasco legal community. In rejecting the recommendation, the Supreme Court noted its previous opinions cautioned against the exact type of misconduct prevalent in the Renke campaign. His banishment now will serve as an appropriate warning to all future candidates for the bench: Campaign fraud is unacceptable and fundamentally inconsistent with the responsibilities of judicial office.