The entire process was bare knuckle politics at its worst and truly shameful from the start.
First, in late 2008 former Waukesha County Judge Mark Gempeler, a lifetime Democrat, manipulated his "retirement date" in order to give Jim Doyle an appointment - and guarantee that his successor would not have to run for election until 2010.
Then Doyle bypassed several qualified attorneys (including an Assistant District Attorney and a Court Commissioner) and appointed local criminal defense and traffic attorney Richard Congdon to fill Gempeler's position. Among Congdon's qualifications for the job are that he is a political contributor to Doyle (of course!) and, more importantly, the former attack dog chairman of the Waukesha County Democratic Party.
If Congdon had simply run for the judgeship in 2009, my guesss is that he'd have lost in an electoral landslide. Obviously, Doyle hoped that by giving Congdon a one-year head start, people would forget the political machinations that led to Congdon getting the position in the first place. In their most optimistic view of the situation, Congdon and Doyle probably also hoped that Congdon would not draw an opponent.
Well, those plans have blown up and Congdon has not only drawn an opponent - but an incredibly formidable one at that!
State Representative Mark Gundrum has announced that he is running for Congdon's seat. Gundrum, a captain in the Army Reserve who has served with the Judge Advocate General in Iraq, has been a leader on legal issues in the State Legislature for years. He's also frequently been talked about as a possible candidate for Wisconsin Attorney General.
I've known Mark Gundrum for years and believe that he will make an outstanding circuit court judge. That aside, his entrance into the race gives the voters of Waukesha an opportunity to weigh in on the way Congdon got his judgeship in the first place.
When Doyle has tried to manipulate the system in the past to appoint people who would probably wouldn't get the position otherwise, the results haven't been pretty come election time (think Louis Butler). My guess is that the same scenario will play out in this case.
In other words, it looks like the clock is ticking on "Richard of 500 days"!
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