3 of 4 Contests Appear Headed for a Runoff

A Municipal Court judge making her second bid for a Superior Court post held a commanding lead over two opponents Tuesday night, while the races for three other judicial seats seemed destined for November runoffs.

As early returns became available, Santa Ana Municipal Judge Barbara Nomoto Schumann had more than the 50% of the vote needed to capture a seat on the Superior Court bench. She held a significant lead over William McNames, a Superior Court research attorney, and Daniel Charles Dutcher, who sat as a judge for 12 years in Westminster Municipal Court before losing the seat in a bitterly contested 1994 race.

Schumann, 45, who was appointed to the Municipal Court in 1979, narrowly lost a previous race in 1994.

The race for two other Superior Court seats and a Laguna Niguel Municipal Court post appeared headed for a runoff, with none of the candidates nearing the simple majority needed to win. A runoff would be held Nov. 5 between the top two vote-getters in the races.

In the bid for one Superior Court seat, only a few percentage points separated Nancy A. Pollard, a private attorney and longtime trustee of Coast Community College District, veteran Santa Ana Municipal Judge Jim Brooks and Westminster Municipal Commissioner Clancy Haynes.

In another Superior Court contest, Fullerton Municipal Judge Carla M. Singer, Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Dunn and Santa Ana Municipal Judge Richard W. Stanford Jr. were locked in an extremely close race.

In the Laguna Niguel Municipal Court race, Deputy Dist. Atty. Carl Biggs held a sizable lead over five rivals but was still below the majority needed. Laguna Niguel Municipal Commissioner Lyle J. Robertson and private attorneys Paul J. Nestor, Steve Corris, Max De Liema and Thomas R. Roll were battling for second place.

In all, nine candidates, four of them current Municipal Court judges, were seeking to fill the seats of three retiring Superior Court judges. And a rare election season judicial opening at Laguna Niguel Municipal Court drew the crowded field of six.

The Laguna Niguel seat became vacant with the retirement of Judge Arthur G. Koelle, one of four judges in the small but bustling Laguna Niguel courthouse.

Candidates in all the races waged low-key campaigns.

Each Superior Court race drew a female candidate hoping to increase the number of women on the 59-seat bench. There are currently four women serving as judges on the Superior Court.

More than 30 incumbent judges facing reelection from the county’s Superior and Municipal Court branches were not challenged Tuesday.