Judge Tries to Block Rival’s Statement : Politics: Request for an order to keep comments off ballot is denied. A hearing is scheduled.

Arguing that it is a personal attack on him, a Burbank Municipal Court judge is trying to block county election officials from printing the ballot statement submitted by a lawyer running against him in the June primary.

An attorney for Judge Marion E. Gubler asked a Superior Court judge Tuesday for a restraining order preventing the county clerk from printing the statement of Rand Rubin, a lawyer who lives and practices in Burbank.

Appearing before Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne, Gubler’s lawyer said Rubin’s statement violates a California Elections Code section that limits what candidates in judicial elections may say in comments that appear on the ballot.

The law states that candidates may comment on their “own personal background and qualifications,” but it prohibits them from making references to other candidates.

Rubin’s statement “goes into great detail, into an attack on the Burbank courts,” said Gubler’s lawyer, Jerry K. Staub. “He’s simply not allowed to do that.”

Wayne denied the request for a restraining order, but scheduled a hearing on the case three days before the ballots are scheduled to be printed and encouraged both sides to try to resolve the dispute themselves before then.

The controversy stems from references to “the Burbank Court” that appear in Rubin’s statement.

Comments such as, “Burbank Courts are wasting taxpayer money” and “our Burbank Court has been censured by the California Supreme Court for its mistreatment of our citizens,” are personal attacks on Gubler, Staub said.

In 1984 the Commission on Judicial Performance publicly censured Gubler for his “zealous efforts to obtain payment from criminal defendants” in an effort to reimburse the county for legal services provided by the public defender’s office. He was also censured for authorizing the private sale of guns confiscated from convicted criminals.

Rubin’s attorney, Phillip L. Heeger, said the statement was not an attack on Gubler.

“It doesn’t refer to the judge, it refers to the Burbank courts,” Heeger said. “I think the language speaks for itself.”