Elections for judges are rare. Here is our endorsement for Yolo County | Opinion

Editor’s note: Because contested races for judgeships are rare, we enlisted the assistance of David De Alba, who was the presiding judge of the Sacramento County Superior Court before he retired. De Alba had never met the candidates vying for a judgeship on the Yolo County Superior Court before we interviewed them May 1, which the candidates acknowledged during our interview. De Alba did not have a vote in our endorsement process, but he offered relevant insights into the candidates’ legal experience that helped inform our deliberations. We sincerely thank him for his time.

Most judges in California don’t reach the bench by getting elected. They’re generally appointed by the sitting governor and once seated, they often face little to no meaningful challenges until they decide to retire.

That’s why a Yolo County election this year, triggered by the impending retirement of Superior Court Judge Janene Beronio, presents a rare opportunity for voters to have a meaningful choice between two non-incumbent candidates.

Both are laudable individuals: Diane Ortiz is a Yolo County deputy district attorney, and Ryan Davis is a Sacramento County court commissioner.

They are both well-versed in the law and knowledgeable, but one is a clear standout.

We endorse Davis because of his breadth of experience as a deputy district attorney, a public defender and a court commissioner. Ortiz was impressive and gracious in her interview, but her experiences are clearly more narrow. She could be an honorable judge one day, but if voters have to make a choice, and they do, we believe Davis’ background makes him the choice for this race.

A judgeship would be a natural continuation of Davis’s current role as court commissioner in Sacramento County Superior Court. A court commissioner is appointed by Superior Court judges to preside over a variety of cases.

Davis is a lifelong Yolo County resident who is raising his young family there. His parents were both public school teachers, and his wife is currently an elementary school teacher.

As a legal professional, Davis has served in civil, family and criminal courts. He began his career as an intern at Legal Services of Northern California and at the Contra Costa County Public Defender’s office. He later participated in UC Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic, a nonprofit organization that seeks justice for individuals facing the death penalty by providing them with high-quality representation. It’s a subject in which Davis has a great interest, and he would later go on to teach at the clinic as an adjunct professor at the university.

Davis’s role as court commissioner is already quasi-judicial and requires handling a high volume of time-sensitive cases. Davis previously worked as a deputy attorney general at the California Department of Justice, a deputy state public defender, an assistant federal public defender and an advisory member of the Judicial Council of California.

Throughout his career, he has stayed involved with his home community, serving as the former president of the Davis Schools Foundation, a member of the City of Davis Human Relations Commission, a community panelist for Yolo County’s Neighborhood Court restorative justice program, and a member of the Citizens’ Oversight Committee for Davis school parcel taxes.

His resume leaves very little to be desired for such an important, judicial role in Yolo County.

Ortiz comes from a law enforcement family. Her campaign page cites her father’s career in the California Highway Patrol and that her two brothers are also in law enforcement. Ortiz told us that she wanted to follow her dad’s footsteps in the CHP, but a training injury prevented her from completing her time at the CHP academy.

She worked in a civilian capacity with the CHP for nearly a decade, in internal affairs and as a legislative analyst. Ortiz has the endorsements of the Davis, Woodland, West Sacramento and Winters police officers’ associations, as well as the Yolo County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association.

There is nothing wrong with promoting a campaign on life’s experiences, love of family and pride in being supported by law enforcement.

Davis, too, has ties to the local law enforcement community: his brother, Matthew, is the Yolo County Undersheriff. Davis has pledged to recuse himself from any cases involving arrests made by his brother or his sister-in-law, who is also employed in local law enforcement. Yolo County is a tight-knit community.

It also did not escape our notice that Ortiz would be a natural extension of Beronio’s tenure as one of Yolo County’s first — and still too few — female jurists. Beronio has endorsed Ortiz.

And, as a Latina, Ortiz would also be representative of diversity needed on the bench. But Ortiz’s career in law enforcement and as a prosecutor is not as nuanced or expansive as that of Davis’s.

At the Office of the State Public Defender, Davis handled direct appeals to the California Supreme Court. On his campaign page, he said he became a public defender because he believes “every person deserves a level of compassion that isn’t earned and can’t be forfeited.”

He was a deputy attorney general with the Government Law Section of California’s Department of Justice, where he worked on Second Amendment cases, election law, housing cases and fiscal and regulatory issues. At the Federal Defender’s Office for the Central District of California, he drafted and filed state habeas petitions, which determine if a prisoner’s detention was lawful.

We sincerely hope that one day Ortiz becomes a judge, but in this election, Davis is clearly ready for the role right now.