Superior Court Judge Candidates Hope Ballot Titles Help Their Case

William W. Bedsworth and Robert H. Gallivan each has his own game plan for winning Orange County’s only race for a Superior Court judgeship in November.

Bedsworth, an Orange County deputy district attorney and an avid opponent of Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, believes there could be no better year than this to be listed on the ballot as a prosecutor. He’s convinced that Orange County will produce such a strong anti-Bird showing that a prosecutor will have an advantage over an opponent.

Bedsworth has been right on track with his plan so far. But Gallivan, a private attorney when election papers were filed but a Municipal Court commissioner now, may have put a slight hitch in that plan. He hopes that since he can now use the stronger court commissioner title on the ballot, he will balance the slate for the voter who may be swayed by Bedsworth’s title.

Bedsworth’s campaign scenario went like this:

Part 1: Bedsworth wins the June primary, but Gallivan finishes a respectable second. A third candidate, Joseph L. Barilla, a Los Angeles County prosecutor, finishes a distant third, but still strong enough to force Bedsworth into a November runoff with Gallivan.

Part 2: In the Nov. 4 election, Bedsworth, with the advantage of his prosecutor title, beats Gallivan with a little help from the large turnout of anti-Bird voters.

The first part happened as if Bedsworth had written the script. He easily won the most votes in the primary--140,778, or 45% of the vote. Gallivan finished a solid second, with 108,674, or 35%. Barilla, as predicted, was the spoiler, attracting 61,183 votes, or 20%. He probably kept Bedsworth from getting the majority vote needed to win the seat without a runoff.

As for the second part of the Bedsworth scenario, there’s been a change since the primary. Now it won’t be Bedsworth, deputy district attorney, against Gallivan, private attorney.

In July, Gallivan was appointed a Harbor Municipal Court commissioner by the judges there. Commissioners perform minor judicial functions, but they also can handle more important court duties if both sides in a case agree to accept their decisions.

Gallivan readily admits that he knew when he applied for the appointment that having the ballot designation “Municipal Court commissioner” by his name would help to offset Bedsworth’s advantage--one that Gallivan has agreed he would have to overcome.

“I think it will help let voters know what my qualifications are,” Gallivan said.

He also said he believes that Bedsworth is counting too much on anti-Bird sentiment helping him. Gallivan said his own opposition to Bird negates that issue in their race.

The two men are running for the seat left vacant by the retirement of Judge James F. Judge.

The two candidates have had their disagreements in the course of the campaign. Gallivan is upset about Bedsworth buying space on a mailer during the primary campaign that indicated he was the GOP choice for the job, even though the race is nonpartisan. Bedsworth counters that it’s Gallivan who keeps harping to voters that Bedsworth is a Democrat and that Gallivan is the Republican.

But they also are friends who respect each other’s qualifications. Each agrees that the other would make a fine judge.

“We joke at luncheons that we have the dull race,” Bedsworth said. “All the stones are being thrown in the Municipal Court races.”

With both men getting high marks from their legal colleagues, perhaps the only substantial issue between Bedsworth and Gallivan is whether Bedsworth’s many years of experience in criminal law should outweigh Gallivan’s years of experience in civil law, and vice versa.

Bedsworth, 38, got his law degree from UC Berkeley. He has spent his entire 15-year career in the Orange County district attorney’s office. He worked his way up quickly and became the youngest to reach the top level of senior prosecutors and head his own section within the office. He has been in charge of the writs and appeals section for five years.

Bedsworth also is a jack-of-all-trades for Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks. He has helped to hire new lawyers for the office. He conducts seminars for new employees and puts together workshops for police agencies to help them keep current on legal issues.

Bedsworth also is one of the leaders of the office softball team, a role that led to a serious knee injury and recent surgery. He is expected to be on crutches for eight weeks.

“I won’t be walking any precincts in this campaign,” he said.

Gallivan, on the other hand, boasts that he has enough family (five children, and even more brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews) to blanket the county with precinct walkers.

Gallivan, 52, is a graduate of the University of San Diego Law School and has been a lawyer for 21 years. He has some criminal experience, but he has specialized most of his career in civil cases.

Gallivan has spent much of his time in recent years as a court arbitrator, a court-appointed position. The arbitration panel on which Gallivan sat was assigned to decide cases under $25,000 in which both parties agreed to let the judge assign an arbitrator to settle the matter.

Gallivan, who lost a previous bid for a Superior Court judgeship in 1984, fears that some voters may not understand the value of his experience in civil law.

“More than 80% of the cases which reach the Superior Court level are civil cases,” Gallivan said. “Bill (Bedsworth) is a good prosecutor but he doesn’t have civil experience, and that’s what the court needs. If I can get that message out to the voters, I can win.”

Bedsworth has a different view.

“What’s needed on the bench is someone who has a strong grasp of criminal law,” he said. “In a civil case, if a judge makes a mistake, someone is out some money. In a criminal case, we’re dealing with people’s lives. Not just the defendant’s, but the victims’.”

When asked about Bedsworth’s election scenario, Gallivan quickly points out that a colleague of Bedsworth, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James G. Enright, had the same idea two years ago. Enright handily won over a group of other candidates in the summer primary. But in the fall, Municipal Judge Ragnar R. Engebretson, who had finished second and made the runoff, edged out Enright in the November, 1984, election.

“I think it shows that with hard work you can overcome someone who might be considered ahead,” Gallivan said.

Bedsworth counters, however, that Gallivan’s commissioner title will have much less impact with voters than Engebretson’s municipal judge title then.

Gallivan has not matched Bedsworth as a fund raiser. The latest report shows that he’s raised about $27,000, nearly half of which he has loaned to his campaign. But he’s convinced that he’s raised enough money to get his name known and run a respectable campaign.

Bedsworth, who has raised nearly $40,000 so far, is reaping the benefit of years of contact with criminal attorneys and police agencies. Most of his contributions have come from these groups.

Bedsworth also benefits from endorsements from 25 police associations, 39 Superior Court judges and a majority of the county’s police chiefs.

Gallivan’s endorsements come from the Republican political leadership in the county and several past presidents of the Orange County Bar Assn.

Gallivan doesn’t like to think of it as an issue, but Bedsworth also has gained considerable respect among bar members through a regular column he writes for the monthly bar association magazine.

“I didn’t read Bill’s column until I started campaigning against him,” Gallivan said. “Let’s just say it’s entertaining.”

The bottom line on the qualifications of both candidates may come from the Orange County Bar Assn.

A poll it took this year on judicial candidates showed both Bedsworth and Gallivan with a 95%-plus rating--at the very top among 18 candidates in the poll.