Konk Life’s Political Questionnaire
Interview conducted by Mark Howell
Tell us your age, what office you’re running for and any previous offices held.
I’m 46 and running for Circuit Judge, Group 4. I’m currently finishing up my term at Mosquito Control, to which I was elected in 2010.
Explain your platform and why you are running. I want to put more time on the docket for dealing with children, both in DCF cases and in juvenile probation cases. Sometimes, DCF cases drag on and on with the kids hanging in limbo. This must stop. When I’m elected, I will add a DCF follow-up day to the calendar, so that we can ensure that all of the parties are making every effort to ensure a speedy resolution to these cases. Children need permanency in order to have a stable childhood.
I’d like to do the same thing with juvenile probation cases (and even for cases with young-minded adults). Having handled many juvenile cases, I know that kids want and need structure. Instead of turning kids over to their probation officer, I’d like to follow up on them — just like we do in Drug Court. Bring them back to court on a regular basis to ask them how school’s coming along; how their job is going; how their girlfriend/boyfriend is. Give them encouragement when necessary … and chide, warn, and discipline them when appropriate. If you can impact a child, you impact generations. I think that’s worth putting a judge putting little extra work and a little extra time into their job.
Detail how you differ from your competing candidates:
Since I moved to the Keys in 2001, I’ve practiced nearly every field of law: Insurance defense, criminal, family law, DCF law, juvenile law, probate, civil, government law, appellate law, traffic court, small claims and landlord-tenant. Some of this practice included high-profile cases. In 2012, I was appointed a magistrate. During this service, I conducted hundreds of hearings on family law cases, civil cases, foreclosure cases and probate cases. That even included conducting trials. I earned a reputation for being hardworking, humane and for always being prepared when I took the bench. This takes energy and dedication, both of which I have.
I believe in mediation, but we have to acknowledge that some cases just won’t settle. When that happens, we need a judge who is ready and unafraid to do his or her job and make decisions. Once a decision is made, the case can be either resolved or appealed, but until that decision is made, the case — and the parties — are in limbo.
Tell us your personal history: Education; professional career; family life and how long you’ve lived in the Keys or the county and your relationship to the Florida Keys and/or Key West.
Growing up, I moved all around the country. Sometimes that was hard, but it taught me how to make friends and make a home anywhere I lived. From eighth grade through high school, I lived at one address. Until I moved to the Keys, that was the longest I’d ever stayed in one place.
I graduated from Baylor University and the University of Dayton School of Law. Between college and law school, I worked as a flight attendant — later Chief Flight Attendant — for an airline. When I was transferred to Savannah, Ga., in 1991, I decided that I needed to be “from somewhere” and before I even stepped off the airplane, I decided I was going to be from Savannah. I made a good decision. I loved Savannah when I lived there and I still love it now. I take a train up there once or twice a year for a visit.
After a stint of teaching law (civil procedure and legal writing), I moved to the Florida Keys, where I found my lifelong home. This is a wonderful, caring community where neighbors still know each other and where our streets are still safe. This community has been very good to me: I moved here in 2001 without a friend in sight, yet this community took me in, welcomed me and even elected me to countywide office in 2010. What a wonderful place we live in!
I’m not married and I have no children. I have a housemate with whom I’ve lived for six years. He is not involved in politics.
Touch on your personal passions in addition to the above.
As well as trying to help kids who have stepped over the line but who can still be turned around, I believe in community spirit and helping our less fortunate and sometimes most vulnerable citizens. I have been involved in the Rural Health Network, Voices for Florida Keys, Children, the United Way of Monroe County and Rotary International.
Tell us the political flash points you expect to encounter if elected.
As a judge, my job will be to follow all laws, unless they are unconstitutional. Whether I personally agree or don’t agree with the law does not factor into the equation, nor do the politics of the decision. A good judge will never allow political considerations to affect a judicial decision. If that means making a popular decision, that’s fine. If it means making an unpopular decision, that’s fine, too. When people go in front of a judge, the law — not politics — reigns.
Tell us anything you feel you need to explain or any misapprehension you believe voters may have of you.
I’m flattered that people think I look too young to be a judge, but I’m actually 46 years old.
Name your favorite movie.
“The Green Mile.”
Your favorite TV show.
“Modern Family.”
Your favorite TV talking head.
I switch around to get different perspectives.
Your favorite newspaper columnist.
She’s gone now: Ann Landers.
Your favorite book.
The four books (so far) in Robert Caro’s “Years of Lyndon Johnson” series.
Your favorite character in American history.
There are so many to choose from and different times called for different leaders, but I’ve always been infatuated with historical women because they accomplished so much in a world where it was hard for women to break out of traditional roles. Katherine Green invented the cotton gin that Eli Whitney patented. Helen Keller and Amelia Earhart inspired generations of both women and men. Miriam Ferguson was governor of Texas in the 1920s at a time when most women in Texas were highly limited in their career options. Elizabeth Dole and Hillary Clinton have both made serious runs for the presidency and have proven that women can tackle any job men can.
Your favorite person in Florida Keys and/or Key West history.
Ernest Hemmingway. What a writer! What a Key Wester!
Your favorite quote or proverb.
“Never, never, never, never give up.” —Winston Churchill
Is there any secret strength you’d like to reveal about yourself at this point?
The genes I inherited from my mother and my grandmother. Growing up on a farm in Alabama, my mom and my grandmother would get up before dawn to make breakfast, not just for the family but for the hired help as well. After breakfast, they would clean up the kitchen, cook lunch and leave it on the table covered with cloths. Then, they joined the men picking cotton until noon during harvest season or working at other jobs at other times of the year. At noon, Mom and Me-Maw would serve lunch to everybody and then, while the men rested for an hour under the trees, they would clean up the kitchen and wash the dishes. After that, everyone returned to the field to work. Whatever was left over from lunch was supper, after which Mom and Me-Maw washed the dishes again. Then, they did the housework. Then my grandmother did the books. That secret strength: A sense of duty and hard work.
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