Robert “Bob” Vance Jr. is the Democratic nominee. He was unopposed in his primary.
Vance, a Birmingham native, is currently a circuit judge in Jefferson County and has been on the bench since 2002; but, his life in the legal world began years before that.
Vance was inspired to be a lawyer by his dad, Robert S. Vance Sr. The elder Vance was the chair of the Alabama Democratic Party and was appointed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter to the Fifth District U.S. Court of Appeals, which later was split to create the 11th Circuit.
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From the Anniston Star:
Democratic Judge Bob Vance Jr. is the best choice to become chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. That’s our opinion. It’s also an opinion shared by six former state Supreme Court justices, including three Republicans, who this week signed a letter that endorsed Vance.
Vance Jr., son of slain Judge Robert S. Vance, who was killed by a package bomb sent to his Mountain Brook home in 1989, is running against two foes: Associate Justice Tom Parker, a Republican, and some of Alabama’s common ailments.
Parker is everything a chief justice shouldn’t be: a Roy Moore acolyte with links to neo-Confederates and white supremacists and a reputation for intractable judicial thinking based more on biblical views than law. If Alabamians couldn’t stand for Moore, the twice-defrocked chief justice, to join the U.S. Senate, they shouldn’t elect Parker as chief justice, either.
Vance Jr.’s vast experience as a Jefferson County trial judge and his desire to address mental-health and drug-addiction issues so common in today’s court cases strengthens his candidacy. So does the pro-Vance signatures of former justices Drayton Nabers, Tom Woodall and Gorman Houston — all Republicans — and Sue Bell Cobb, John England and Mark Kennedy, their Democratic colleagues.
The Star’s editorial board recommends Bob Vance Jr.
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From the Decatur Daily: No other race offers so clear a choice. Six former Alabama Supreme Court justices, including three Republicans, have endorsed Democratic Judge Robert Vance Jr. in the race for chief justice.
Republican Tom Parker, already an associate justice on the court, has one claim to fame: He was an ally of disgraced former Chief Justice Roy Moore. More ideologue than jurist, Parker has never possessed the knowledge or temperament to sit on the state’s highest court.
Vance, a circuit judge in Jefferson County for the past 16 years, has both, as well as experience as a working judge, and not as an activist rewriting law from the bench to suit his political beliefs.
The Daily recommends Robert Vance for Alabama Supreme Court chief justice.
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"Six former members of the Alabama Supreme Court, including three Republicans, have signed a letter urging voters to pick Jefferson County Circuit Judge Bob Vance as the state’s next chief justice.
The former justices on Monday endorsed Vance, a Democrat, over Republican Associate Justice Tom Parker in the Nov. 6 election. Parker is a current member of the court.
In the letter endorsing Vance, the justices wrote that Vance is "clearly the most qualified candidate for this high office."
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Judge Bob Vance doesn’t mind talking about the last time he ran for Alabama Supreme Court chief justice.
“This is a real echo of the race six years ago, and I intend to point that out,” Vance said. “The concerns that got me into the race six years ago are the same concerns that got me in to this race.”
Read more on the Montgomery Advertiser site.
With all eyes on the current confirmation process of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court, Alabama has a Supreme Court show of our own in what is likely the best shot Alabama Democrats have at winning a statewide election this year. Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, in Alabama we elect our appellate judges in partisan elections. Currently Republicans occupy all nineteen seats on the three appellate courts.
Of those nineteen appellate seats, eleven are up for grabs this election cycle, however Democrats only fielded candidates to run for Chief Justice and one associate justice slot. It wasn’t until the last day to qualify and some heavy persuading by Senator Doug Jones that someone agreed to run for Chief Justice.
That someone is Bob Vance, a circuit court judge in Jefferson County for the past sixteen years. If the name sounds familiar it should. Vance was the Democratic nominee for the same seat in 2012, losing to Roy Moore by just a couple of percentage points even though he entered the race as a last minute substitute after Democrats removed the original nominee.
Judge Vance is married to Joyce Vance the former U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Alabama from 2009-2017. He is also the son of the late Judge Robert Vance who sat on the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, until his assassination in 1989.
Vance has received lots of support from the business community and has the backing of two well-known former Republican Judges, both who served with the GOP nominee. Former Chief Justice Drayton Nabers Jr. and former Associate Justice Thomas Woodall recently donated to Vance's campaign.
Vance will face Justice Tom Parker, the protégé of Roy Moore. Parker was first elected an associate justice on the Alabama Supreme Court in 2004 and has been reelected twice. He defeated current Chief Justice Lyn Stuart by less than twenty thousand votes to win the GOP nomination. Governor Kay Ivey had appointed Stuart after the suspension and removal of Roy Moore.
Even if Parker loses to Vance he will remain on the Supreme Court as an associate justice, as his current term does not expire until 2024.
Vance currently has the most money banked with $400 thousand on hand compared to Parker’s $17 thousand. Parker drained his campaign account in the hotly contested GOP primary and will have to rely on plaintiff lawyers, who supported him against Stuart, if he is to raise any significant money before the November 6 election.
Read More: https://www.montgomeryindependent.com/opinion/what-about-the-alabama-supreme-court/article_5d0c4bcc-...
MONTGOMERY, Ala
. – In the race for Alabama chief justice, Democratic nominee Bob Vance is attracting more donors than Republican Tom Parker.
Campaign finance reports filed recently show that Vance raised $200,000 for his campaign last month. Parker reported raising less than $4,000.
Vance has an available campaign balance of $420,197 while Parker has $17,500.
The race pits Parker, a member of the court since 2005 and a past adviser to former chief justice Roy Moore, against Vance, a Jefferson County judge.
Finance reports show that two former Republican Supreme Court members, former Chief Justice Drayton Nabers and former Justice Thomas Woodall, donated to Vance’s campaign.
Parker won the GOP primary over incumbent Chief Justice Lyn Stuart, who had a financial advantage in the race.
Two former Republican associate justices on the Alabama Supreme Court have donated to the democratic candidate for the Chief Justice's spot.
Robert Vance Jr. and Tom Parker are competing for the top position on the Alabama Supreme Court, and voters will decide Nov. 6 who will hold the position for the next six years. Vance, a Democrat, and Parker, a Republican, have raised a total of more than one million dollars during the race.
But, campaign finance records show, Vance has had more contributions and contributors than Parker--including from two Republicans who previously served on the state's highest court.
Both former Chief Justice Drayton Nabers Jr. and former Associate Justice Thomas Woodall have donated to Vance's campaign.
Vance has raised a total of $632,472.19 during the race; Parker has raised $426,652.05. According to the latest finance records, Vance has in his campaign account more than 23 times the money Parker does. Vance ended last month with $420,197.48 on hand, while Parker had $17,508.59. The decrease comes after Parker used $432,238.44 on expenditures during the race.
During the 2018 election cycle, Parker has gotten 69 contributions--Vance has been given 1704. Those contribution numbers include loans or donations each candidate has given his own campaign, and the data for Parker begins last year, while Vance's began in February.
In June, campaign records show Woodall gave $500 to Vance's campaign. Woodall served as an Associate Justice on the Alabama Supreme Court from 2001 until his retirement in 2013.
This year isn't the first time Woodall has supported Vance. When Vance was competing against Roy Moore for the chief justice spot in 2012, Woodall endorsed Vance in a letter along with two other Republicans and seven Democrats. At the time, Woodall was serving as Associate Justice.
In August, Nabers gave $2,500 to Vance's campaign. Nabers currently is an attorney with Maynard Cooper and Gale PC in Birmingham, but he has a 50-year career as an attorney, business executive and public servant. He served as finance director for the state until being named to the Supreme Court in 2004, where he served two years as chief justice before returning to private practice in 2006.
"Even though we're in different parties, I have nothing but the highest respect for those two men," Vance said. "It's a high honor to receive that kind of support. I am touched and honored."
Vance said that he aims to appeal to everyone, and his message is non-partisan. "My vision is to be an advocate for everyone, regardless of their political party. Once we go into the courthouse, politics should have no role... really, there's no place for politics."
"Deep down, the people of Alabama just want the courts to function efficiently and promote fairness- no matter who they are or where they come from."
Parker released a statement Thursday evening. He said, "It is no surprise that the failed moderate establishment politicians who oppose President Trump are funneling money to Justice Parker's SPLC-backed liberal opponent."
This post was updated 9/7/2018 at 7 a.m. with Parker's comment. AL.com has reached out for comment to Nabers and Woodall. This post will be updated.
Read More - https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2018/09/former_republicans_donate_to_d.html
Vance, a circuit judge in Jefferson County, will face Justice Tom Parker, the Republican nominee, during the Nov. 6 General Election.
Noting he has been a trial judge for 16 years, Vance said in a brief interview he knows of things that need to be dealt with in the court system. He pointed out the chief justice is the top administrative official over all courts in the state.
"Our court system needs a strong, effective advocate in Montgomery" to help local courts throughout the state, he said, although that is not easy as money in the budgets are tight as demands upon the court are growing. He talked about working with state legislators to deal with funding, as well as encourage other judges to work with the Legislature.
"We need a chief justice who will focus on the real problems and will roll up his sleeves and get to work on those problems," Vance said. "Some chief justices in the past have gotten sidetracked with other matters. We can't have that because it is so difficult.
"I tell folks it is not going to be easy. There are no magic wands. It has taken us decades to get into this mess and there is no quick way out.
While funding is the top priority, he said drug addiction and a lack of treatment for mental health are generating many of the challenges the court faces. Many people facing those problems "are getting warehoused in our jails and prisons, and they are not getting the treatment they need," he said. As a result, they get back into crime when they get out and start a revolving door that costs taxpayers and leads, in turn, to overcrowded prisons.
"That is not just a court problem. That will involve the Department of Corrections, the governor and the attorney general," he said, although the courts and law enforcement are having to grapple with the problems "at the tip of the spear."
Vance noted about half the people coming into the court system has a substance abuse problem, and a quarter to a third of the people have some type of mental illness.
"And, of course, many have both," he said.
He hoped for a role for the chief justice and the courts to tackle those problems, noting solutions are being found in the court programs across the state. He said "diversionary" court programs allow supervision of a treatment program.
"It's not easy. I don't want anyone to think this gives you the warm and fuzzies inside. This is a tough program to go through, but they work," Vance said, saying data shows that.
As a Democrat running in a solid Republican state, Vance noted he ran six years ago against former Chief Justice Roy Moore. "It was a whirlwind campaign, and we came pretty close, and Sen. (Doug) Jones' victory last year shows a Democrat can win." Moore won against Vance with 52 percent of the vote, although he was removed in 2016 from the chief justice post for a second time, after defying a court order in both cases. Jones beat Moore in a special election for a U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions.
Vance said it is "an uphill battle" for a Democrat to run for the position in Alabama, "but I believe if you show people you are a reasonable alternative and you are really thinking about their problems, they will listen to you. The whole task is to get people comfortable with you, so that when they go into that voting booth, they will say, 'This guy, Bob Vance, I am comfortable with him, and I'm willing to support him regardless of what his party is, because I like his ideas and he seems to care about the problems that are affecting us.'"
Asked about Parker's close association with Moore, Vance said he was concerned about Parker "because he has always been a close ally of Roy Moore's. For the past 15 years, he has been Moore's closest ally on the Supreme Court. He has not hidden the fact he has always been a big admirer of Roy Moore. He seems to be using the Roy Moore playbook of focusing on divisive politics. He has wedged social issues instead of focusing on the issues I've been talking about.
"That is a grave concern, and frankly that was a big reason for why I got into this race, because we cannot go backwards to those bad days. We need to put our best foot forward on the problems I've been talking about."
Vance said he likes to think people in the state are "tired of ugliness. They are tired of the divisiveness. They are tired of politicians trying to pit one group against another. They just want people in there who are public servants and who will quietly and effectively do the job they were sent to Montgomery to do. I am convinced we are rounding that corner where more and more people are thinking like that. That is a large part of what this campaign is about."
Read More - http://mountaineagle.com/stories/vance-wants-to-address-drugs-mental-treatment,17461
Robert “Bob” Vance Jr. is the Democratic nominee. He was unopposed in his primary.
Vance, a Birmingham native, is currently a circuit judge in Jefferson County and has been on the bench since 2002; but, his life in the legal world began years before that.
Vance was inspired to be a lawyer by his dad, Robert S. Vance Sr. The elder Vance was the chair of the Alabama Democratic Party and was appointed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter to the Fifth District U.S. Court of Appeals, which later was split to create the 11th Circuit.
Continue reading on AL.com
From the Anniston Star:
Democratic Judge Bob Vance Jr. is the best choice to become chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. That’s our opinion. It’s also an opinion shared by six former state Supreme Court justices, including three Republicans, who this week signed a letter that endorsed Vance.
Vance Jr., son of slain Judge Robert S. Vance, who was killed by a package bomb sent to his Mountain Brook home in 1989, is running against two foes: Associate Justice Tom Parker, a Republican, and some of Alabama’s common ailments.
Parker is everything a chief justice shouldn’t be: a Roy Moore acolyte with links to neo-Confederates and white supremacists and a reputation for intractable judicial thinking based more on biblical views than law. If Alabamians couldn’t stand for Moore, the twice-defrocked chief justice, to join the U.S. Senate, they shouldn’t elect Parker as chief justice, either.
Vance Jr.’s vast experience as a Jefferson County trial judge and his desire to address mental-health and drug-addiction issues so common in today’s court cases strengthens his candidacy. So does the pro-Vance signatures of former justices Drayton Nabers, Tom Woodall and Gorman Houston — all Republicans — and Sue Bell Cobb, John England and Mark Kennedy, their Democratic colleagues.
The Star’s editorial board recommends Bob Vance Jr.
Read more on annistonstar.com
From the Decatur Daily: No other race offers so clear a choice. Six former Alabama Supreme Court justices, including three Republicans, have endorsed Democratic Judge Robert Vance Jr. in the race for chief justice.
Republican Tom Parker, already an associate justice on the court, has one claim to fame: He was an ally of disgraced former Chief Justice Roy Moore. More ideologue than jurist, Parker has never possessed the knowledge or temperament to sit on the state’s highest court.
Vance, a circuit judge in Jefferson County for the past 16 years, has both, as well as experience as a working judge, and not as an activist rewriting law from the bench to suit his political beliefs.
The Daily recommends Robert Vance for Alabama Supreme Court chief justice.
Read more on decaturdaily.com