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Voter Guides
Los Angeles County Superior Court judges
Superior Court judges oversee courtroom proceedings and trials across all of Los Angeles County.
Cato Hernández
Cato Hernández scours through tons of archives to understand how our region became the way it is today.
Published Apr 16, 2026 6:00 PM
Updated Apr 16, 2026 6:00 PM
A person's hand drops an envelope into a ballot box with the seal of Superior Court.
Voting for judges can be confusing. Our guide breaks down your choices and how to evaluate the candidates.
(
Raymond Rivera
/
For LAist
)
Sponsored by
GET TO KNOW THE CANDIDATES

What’s at stake in this race

Eleven judgeships are up for election June 2, and choosing whom to vote for in these races is one of the hardest jobs facing voters. Here, we offer you a guide to how to do just that — and a look at the candidates on the ballot in L.A. County.

What does a Los Angeles Superior Court judge do?

Superior Court judges oversee courtroom proceedings and trials across all of L.A. County. There are more than 400 judges in the court system. These trials cover everything having to do with state and local laws, including family law (such as child custody and divorces), landlord and tenant cases, contract disputes, thefts, murder, probate (distributing a person’s possessions after they die) and small claims.

A judge’s job is to act as court referee:

  • making sure all sides are abiding by the proper rules.
  • hearing arguments.
  • handing down rulings based on the evidence and their interpretation of the law.

If the law is very clear on a given issue, a judge has to stick to it regardless of how they personally feel. In other cases, laws may be ambiguous, and that’s when a judge has to issue their own interpretation of the law. Judges also have a fair amount of discretion when it comes to handing down penalties, such as the length of a sentence for a criminal conviction or the payment sum for a civil case. That's where it starts to really matter who is in the seat.

You might know L.A. Superior Court judges from

Your traffic ticket dispute. Or your child custody case. Or that time you served on a jury.

If you’ve never had to interact with the court system, you’ve definitely heard of a case the L.A. Superior Court has handled: think Britney Spears’ conservatorship, Rebecca Grossman’s trial for killing two boys, the O.J. Simpson trial or the Meta and Google case on social media harms.

Why do we vote for judges?

The short answer is that it's California law.

Superior Court judges get the job either by a governor's appointment or by winning election. They serve six-year terms, but they don’t always have to face reelection when that time is up.

A seat only appears on your ballot in certain situations. The most common is when there are at least two challengers vying for an office. Seats can also show up when there’s a single candidate who isn't an incumbent. Judges who file reelection paperwork but go unchallenged never appear on the ballot at all — they automatically get another term. In general, we usually have about a dozen or so judges to choose in each election.

If you’re not totally comfortable with the idea of electing judges, you’re not alone. Some states select judges differently, but California has done it this way for a long time. Proposals to stop electing judges here haven’t succeeded.

Lots of people have questioned whether it’s a good idea to elect our judiciary — does it cause judges to worry more about being popular instead of making the right decisions in cases? Some critics also point to L.A.’s 2006 judicial elections, in which a well-respected sitting judge who had served on the court for over 20 years unexpectedly lost her seat to a bagel shop owner with much less legal experience who spent way more money on campaign advertising.

More in LA County Races

How can I better understand the role of judges? 

It depends on how much time you want to commit. Here are some options:

  • Attend public courtroom proceedings: Cases that interest you can be found on the courthouse’s calendar. If you’re interested in a particular judge, you can find their department and assignment here. Make sure you’re dressed appropriately and follow the rules for that courthouse.
  • Join a public service program: You can volunteer for the Civil Grand Jury, which examines local governmental agencies and investigates citizen complaints. There’s also Court Appointed Special Advocates for kids in child welfare and juvenile justice systems, which are trained volunteers selected by judges.
  • Help watchdog local judges: Stay aware of the California Commission on Judicial Performance’s public discipline decisions. Court Watch LA, from the left-leaning advocacy group La Defensa, trains “court watchers” to observe criminal and immigration proceedings.
  • Meet judicial officers outside the courtroom: Instead of you volunteering, it’s the other way around. Court employees do community outreach, like holding a Court Commons pop-up resource center. Judges also join service club events.

You can also see what other people think of a particular judge. The Robing Room and Rate My Judge are like Yelp reviews for the court system — but take them with a grain of salt. Some Superior Court judges have few reviews, if any. And since anyone can post, many of the ratings aren’t considered as fair as a formal evaluation.

What to consider in a candidate

Evaluating judicial candidates is notoriously hard. This is really not an easy task for the average voter. Since many candidates are wary of politicizing judgeships, they don’t spend a lot of money on campaign advertising, which makes it hard to find out who they are or what they stand for. Plus, these are nonpartisan seats, so you don’t have the option of just voting for candidates who identify as a member of the party with which you’re registered.

But there are a few pieces of information that can help with your decision.

Stuart Rice, a retired L.A. County Superior Court judge and a past president of the California Judges Association, shared his tips with LAist here.

Look at the L.A. County Bar Association's ratings

This is the main professional association for L.A.’s legal community. During every election, LACBA undertakes a lengthy evaluation process for each judicial candidate. (LAist will update this guide to include the LACBA ratings, which should be released in late April.) The ratings are one of the only ways for a voter without a legal background to assess whether a candidate is qualified for the bench.

With LACBA, candidates fill out questionnaires, face an evaluation committee and submit 50 to 75 people who know their work and can act as personal references. The committee gives candidates one of four ratings: Exceptionally Well Qualified, Well Qualified, Qualified or Not Qualified. They don’t share reasons for a particular rating unless someone declined to participate.

The ratings can be a useful way to evaluate a candidate because they’re supposed to take temperament and personality into account in addition to legal ability. That ties in to what Rice said is most important for a candidate to have: proper judicial demeanor.

“To me, it means you treat everybody the same. You treat everybody with respect. You treat everybody with dignity. You’re impartial,” Rice said. “You set a tone in that courtroom so that the litigants don’t feel like they’re in an environment where they can be yelling at each other in the courtroom.”

Keep in mind, these ratings are the opinion of a private, volunteer membership group unaffiliated with the state bar. Other groups may find candidates more or less qualified. Past candidates have raised fairness concerns with the process, though LACBA maintains that committee members are told to be non-biased.

Check out endorsements

These are nonpartisan seats, but you’ll still see endorsements from newspapers, politicians and issue-based organizations, just like any political contest. If there’s an organization you trust, their endorsement might tip the scales for you.

The role of political parties in society is so strong that things are changing. According to Rice, the courts have become more political in recent elections.

“ The candidates, despite this being a nonpartisan race, really want to get the endorsement of the Democratic Party,” Rice said. “That's because L.A. is overwhelmingly Democratic.”

Consider candidates’ experience

The only requirement for being a judge is to have at least 10 years in one of two paths: being authorized to practice law in California (usually by passing the bar exam); or serving as a judge in the state. That means you might find a wide range of legal experience among candidates. If they were a judge before, or have significant trial experience, that’s a big clue as to how prepared they may be for the job on Day 1. Having a history as a prosecutor or defense attorney can also tell you they’ve had a lot of experience in court, and give you an idea of their potential approach to criminal justice issues.

Here are some common job titles you may see on the ballot and what they mean:

  • Superior Court commissioner: Someone hired by court judges to do lower-level judicial work, such as traffic violation hearings or small claims. “Once chosen as a commissioner, you are already doing the job as a judge,” said Rice (who started his career as a Superior Court commissioner).
  • Administrative law judge: In California, these are lawyers hired by the state to be independent decision-makers for a particular agency in administrative and regulatory disputes.
  • Deputy district attorney: A prosecutor who works for the county district attorney’s office, representing the government in felony and misdemeanor cases.
  • Public defender: A defense attorney employed by the government to represent defendants accused of crimes who can’t afford private lawyers.
  • Deputy county counsel: An attorney who works for the county counsel’s office, giving legal advice to departments and representing the county in various litigation issues.
  • Deputy city attorney: An attorney who handles lawsuits on behalf of a city government. In places like L.A., deputy city attorneys also act as prosecutors for misdemeanors.
  • Attorney, attorney at law, counselor at law, or lawyer: These are general titles used to describe anyone authorized to practice law, whether they’re a law professor, private defense attorney, in-house counsel at a company, or someone who’s passed the bar exam but isn’t actually working as a lawyer.

Look at a candidate’s website

Campaign websites can give you more detailed information about a candidate’s background, mission and experience. Someone serious about their campaign will have a website, Rice said. Pay attention to how sophisticated it is and what they choose to say about themselves.

“ They may say vote for me. I’m the one that’s going to change the world,” Rice said. “Well, judges are supposed to interpret the law, not make the law. There are a variety of things that might impress one voter and turn off a different voter.”

Candidates could also express viewpoints there that they shouldn’t. Anyone running for a judicial seat is bound by the California ethics code. Among the restrictions, candidates need to avoid creating an appearance of political bias, or implying how they would rule on an issue that could come before the court.

More reading

What it takes to win

For races that have only two candidates, the winner will be decided in the June primary. Whoever gets more than 50% of the vote wins outright. For the rest, if no one gets more than half of the votes, the top two vote getters move on to the general election in November.

More AirTalk interviews

The candidates for office

About LAist's voter guides

When information is missing

Some candidates did not reply to our requests for images. Some did not have a campaign website and/or list of endorsements available online at the time of publication. We will update this guide as more candidate information becomes available.

L.A. County has 32 candidates vying for 15 seats, but only 11 are contested. It can be difficult to learn about sitting judges, so we've included their profile on Trellis Law, a legal research website, and information showing how they reached the bench. For attorneys, we’ve included their State Bar profiles.

This year, LAist asked all candidates in contested judicial races to complete a survey. We’ve included their responses below and noted who did not answer. Responses were limited to 800 characters, and LAist did not edit the candidates' submissions.

Office No. 2

An older man in a gray suit and blue tie.
Robert S. Draper
(
Courtesy of the campaign
)
A smiling man with short dark hair and a blue blazer over a white collared shirt.
Tal Valbuena
(
Axel Koester Photography
)

Robert S. Draper

Judge of the Superior Court

Tal K. Valbuena

Deputy District Attorney, County of Los Angeles

Office No. 14

A smiling woman with shoulder length brown hair and a black blazer
Angie Christides
(
Courtesy Angie Christides
)
A woman with dark hair wears a blue blazer and a white necklace.
Irene Lee
(
Courtesy of the campaign
)

Angie Christides

Deputy district attorney, County of Los Angeles

Irene Lee

Deputy district attorney, County of Los Angeles

Office No. 39

This candidate will be on the ballot but the race is uncontested.

Binh Q. Dang

Deputy public defender, County of Los Angeles

Office No. 60

This candidate will be on the ballot but the race is uncontested.

Ann M. Maurer

Chief assistant city attorney, City of Glendale

Office No. 64

Francisco Amador

Attorney at law

Maria Ghobadi

Deputy district attorney, County of Los Angeles

A smiling woman with long brown hair and a red blazer over a white blouse with a white pearl necklace.
Rhonda Haymon
(
Courtesy Rhonda Haymon
)

Rhonda A. Haymon

Deputy district attorney, County of Los Angeles

Francisco Amador did not respond to LAist's survey.

Office No. 65

A smiling man with short hair and a gray suit jacket
Justin Allen Clayton
(
Justin Allen Clayton
)
A smiling woman with shoulder-length brown hair in a dark blazer
Chellei G. Jimenez
(
Courtesy Chellei G. Jimenez
)

Justin Allen Clayton

Deputy public defender, County of Los Angeles

  • Website: Not available
  • Endorsements: Not available
  • State Bar: Profile and license 
  • LACBA rating: Coming soon

Chellei G. Jimenez

Attorney

A smiling man with short hair, glasses and a well-kept beard in a pinstripe suit jacket with a salmon colored tie
Samuel Wolloch Krause
(
Courtesy Samuel Wolloch Krause
)
A smiling woman with long dark hair in a dark gray blazer
Anna Slotky Reitano
(
Courtesy Anna Slotky Reitano
)

Samuel Wolloch Krause

Attorney/legal author

Anna Slotky Reitano

Deputy county counsel, County of Los Angeles

Office No. 66

A smiling man with short hair and a beard with a blue suit jacket and colorful tie
Ben Forer
(
Courtesy Ben Forer
)
A smiling woman with dark hair and a dark blue blazer over a blue blouse
Cheryl Turner
(
Courtesy Cheryl Turner
)

Ben Forer

Deputy district attorney, County of Los Angeles

Cheryl C. Turner

Attorney at law

  • Website: Not available
  • Endorsements: Not available
  • State Bar: Profile and license
  • LACBA rating: Coming soon

Office No. 81

A man wearing glasses and a blue-and-green checkered shirt under a dark jacket.
Dan Kapelovitz
(
Hadley Gustafson
/
Courtesy of the campaign
)

Dan Kapelovitz

Attorney/experimental filmmaker

David Walgren

Judge of the Superior Court

Office No. 87

An image of three photos in a row: At left, is a black-and-white photo of a man in a suit with a striped tie, the middle image is a man in a pinstripe suit and a red handkerchief in his suit pocket and at far right is a woman in a dark patterned suit jacket.
The candidates, from left: Anthony Bayne, David DeJute and Sharee Sanders Gordon.
(
Courtesy of the campaigns
)

Anthony (A.J.) Bayne

Deputy public defender, County of Los Angeles

David DeJute

Law professor/attorney

Sharee Sanders Gordon

Deputy city attorney, City of Los Angeles

Office No. 116

Pat Connolly

Judge of the Superior Court

A man with short hair and glasses in a suit.
Paul A. Thompson
(
Courtesy Paul A. Thompson
)

Paul A. Thompson

Deputy district attorney, County of Los Angeles

Office No. 131

A smiling man with medium length hair with a suit and blue tie
David Ross
(
Courtesy David Ross
)
A smiling man with short hair in a blue suit with a striped tie
Troy Slaten
(
Courtesy Troy Slaten
)

Carlos Dammeier

Administrative law judge, Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, State of California

David Ross

Deputy alternate public defender, County of Los Angeles

Troy W. Slaten

Administrative law judge, Department of Industrial Relations, State of California

Donna Tryfman

Deputy public defender, County of Los Angeles

Office No. 141

This candidate will be on the ballot but the race is uncontested.

Mariela Torres

Deputy district attorney, County of Los Angeles

  • Website: Not available
  • Endorsements: Not available
  • State Bar: Profile and license
  • LACBA rating: Coming soon

Office No. 176

Gloria Marin

Deputy district attorney, County of Los Angeles

A smiling man with short dark hair and a beard in a suit with a yellow tie.
Zachary Smith
(
Courtesy Zachary Smith
)

Zachary Smith, deputy public defender, County of Los Angeles

Office No. 181

A smiling man with short hair and glasses in a suit with a blue tie
Ryan Dibble
(
Courtesy Ryan Dibble
)
A smiling woman with long dark hair in a judge's robe
Thanayi Lindsey
(
Courtesy Thanayi Lindsey
)

Ryan Dibble

Superior Court commissioner

Thanayi Lindsey

Administrative law judge, Office Of Administrative Hearings, State Of California

Office No. 196

This candidate will be on the ballot but the race is uncontested.

Candice J. Henry

Deputy district attorney, County of Los Angeles

  • Website: Not available
  • Endorsements: Not available
  • State Bar: Profile and license
  • LACBA rating: Coming soon
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