Last year, I wrote a post for Judicial Reports about the pervasive problem of judicial candidates posting their smiling faces on every telephone pole from the Queens border to Montauk.  While appreciating the ludicrous position of running for a judgeship, with nothing to offer besides a party endorsement and their best Joe Wapner impression, the effort at achieving name recognition by violating the law seemed so very wrong.

An inherent irony is that those who seek our vote for a position where they swear to uphold the law are busily breaking the law by attaching their signs to poles across the state, but this long-standing tradition passes right over the heads of most voters. And to make matters worse, as signs fall down to live out the rest of their lives as the flotsam and jetsam of our lesser quality of life, or worse yet remain attached after a candidate has lost an election, they serve as a reminder of how these good men and women who seek nothing more than to serve have demeaned themselves to gain our love.

This year, the most remarkable thing has happened.  With a shy two weeks remaining in the campaign, I have yet to see a single poster for a judicial candidate on a telephone pole.  Not one!  There may be one, even two, lurking in places I haven’t ventured, but this is a monumental shift in the approach to judicial campaigning.

I applaud all candidates for judicial office for their restraint, their adherence to the law and the return of dignity to a particularly undignified endeavor.  Way to go. 

I noticed.  I hope others have noticed.  And I believe that all Long Islanders should appreciate that this despicable practice is over, and that this should instill confidence in the quality and integrity of judicial candidates of both parties on Long Island.

Update:  I wrote too soon.  Within hours of posting this, suddenly appeared signs on telephone poles for Robin Kent, Democractic candidate for a Nassau County Family Court judgeship.  A bunch of signs.  Unlawful signs.  If a candidate for the judiciary breaks the law to get elected, they have a problem.  Robin Kent’s signs are unlawful, and people who do unlawful things should not be judges.