Judge Thomas Withdraws Ballot Title

Judge Maxine Thomas agreed Thursday to withdraw a controversial sample ballot statement describing her as presiding judge of the Municipal Court, a position from which she was ousted two months ago.

The agreement came after Burbank Municipal Judge Bernard Kaufman, Thomas’ opponent for a seat on the Superior Court, filed suit this week seeking to have the description deleted from the statement scheduled to be mailed to voters Sept. 25.

Thomas’ attorney, Geraldine Green, said a statement of qualifications that Thomas had prepared was mislaid and was replaced with another statement which she never authorized.

Badly Written Document

Though Kaufman had merely sought to delete the reference to Thomas as “presiding judge,” Green said the numerous grammatical errors and “awkward sentence structure” in the statement submitted by one of her former campaign volunteers prompted Thomas to seek to withdraw the entire statement.

“The statement doesn’t even resemble what Judge Thomas intended. It is just not a statement she would want printed in a voter pamphlet,” Green said, adding that in the statement Thomas had prepared for publication, she described herself as “former presiding judge” of the court.

Thomas was ousted from her position as presiding judge on June 25 on a 57-13 vote of her colleagues, who complained privately that Thomas too often was absent and showed favoritism in court assignments.

According to Green, Thomas first learned of the ballot statement two days after the Aug. 11 deadline for withdrawing it and immediately sent a letter to Registrar of Voters Charles Weissburd asking that it be withdrawn.

Deputy County Counsel Philip Hickok determined Thursday, only moments before a court hearing on Kaufman’s petition, that the statement could be withdrawn because Thomas had neither signed nor submitted it. The statement was signed by C. C. Spellman, whom Green described as a former communications consultant to the campaign.

Craig Steele, one of Kaufman’s campaign consultants, said Kaufman will drop the matter now that the statement is no longer going to appear.