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Committee debates bill to bar judges from benefiting from party contributions or endorsements; State Bar objects to enforcement route
Summary
Representative Ed Staffman proposed HB224 to bar judges and judicial candidates from seeking or using political party contributions or endorsements and move enforcement to the Commissioner of Political Practices; proponents cited impartiality concerns and the State Bar argued enforcement should remain with the Judicial Standards Commission and Supreme Court.
Representative Ed Staffman introduced House Bill 224, a one-sentence statutory addition prohibiting judges or judicial candidates from knowingly seeking, accepting, using, advertising, promoting, or otherwise benefiting from a political‑party contribution or endorsement.
Staffman framed the bill as aligning statutory enforcement with existing judical canons (Canon 4.1) and said codification would add enforcement teeth because "there's an enforcement mechanism" that currently lacks public transparency. He told the committee he had run an AI…
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