Imagine you've applied to become a judge. Vacancies on the bench don't happen every day - it might be good to be king, but it's not so bad to be judge either - so you've polished your application to a high sheen, compiled an all-star list of references, practiced for the nominating commission that recommends whom the governor should appoint, maybe even though you did well enough that you start testing what "The Honorable" looks like in front of your name.
Then you hear who one of your competitors is: a major with the Maryland Army National Guard, currently serving in Iraq. Already has completed a tour in Afghanistan (and returned with a Bronze Star, a silver Medaille de la Defense Nationale from the French and additional chest bling from the Kandahar Provisional Government). Labored - in between those stints fighting global terrorism - in the trenches of the Baltimore state's attorney's office, first prosecuting misdemeanors, then handgun and other felonies, and finally homicides. Traveled to Ethiopia and Haiti for Catholic Relief Services. Oh, and served in the Peace Corps, too.
So do you just cancel that fitting with the robe-maker?
Well, maybe not - the judicial selection process is secretive and often unpredictable. Still, you have to sympathize with the 24 other candidates vying with Charles Blomquist for one of the two vacancies for Baltimore District Court judge.
"We all bring unique experiences and qualifications to the bench or the applicant pool," Blomquist told me by phone from Baghdad last week, displaying, perhaps, that vaunted judicial temperament that the nominating commission looks for. "Mine are somewhat unusual."
It was getting around 11 p.m. in Iraq, and Blomquist was a little reluctant to talk too much - not because of the late hour but to avoid the appearance of campaigning for the appointment. "I'm not trying to win a popular vote," he said.
Candidates for the bench go through an extensive interview process - first with local and state bar associations, which send their ratings to the Judicial Nominating Commission, then with the commissioners themselves. The commission compiles a list of applicants it considers most qualified for the vacancies, and the governor is required to make appointments from that roster.
I've heard that these interviews sometimes can be quite intense even under normal circumstances - they sound like a sort of defend-your-life type of experience, coming before a group that can make or break your chances of becoming a judge - so I can only imagine what they're like conducted over the phone from a war zone.
