Parker Live News from the Parker Strip since 2009.
La Paz County will choose its judges in Arizona’s primary election on August 2nd.
Judge of the La Paz County Superior Court and Justice of the Peace of Parker Justice Court will be chosen on the Republican primary ballot. Since there are no candidates running as Democrats or Libertarians for the two offices, the Republican candidates nominated in the primary will be elected in November.
On the Superior Court bench, current Judge Jessica Quickle is being challenged by Marcus Kelley. Kelley is a former La Paz County prosecutor who says he has lived in Arizona on and off since 1980. He has seized upon his opponent’s 2021 reprimand by the State of Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct for her treatment of colleagues in the workplace, which Quickle has both refuted as inaccurate in part and acknowledged in part, citing a difficult workload during the pandemic and some misunderstanding of her demeanor. Quickle has been Judge of the Superior Court since 2019, after she won election in 2018 against Karen Hobbs. She is the first female judge in the history of the court.
Justice of the Peace Tiffany Dyer has served the same amount of time as Quickle, defeating two Sheriff’s deputies to win the Republican nomination as judge of Parker Justice Court in the 2018 primary election. Dyer was formerly the Clerk of the Parker Justice Court. This election, she is being challenged by Karen Slaughter, who for many years was judge of the Salome Justice Court, which closed recently leaving Parker as the sole Justice Court in the county. Slaughter won election and re-election as judge in Salome several times after formerly being a dispatcher, a jailer and a Certified Peace Officer with the La Paz County Sheriff’s Department.
Clerk of the Superior Court Hollie Lucas is uncontested. Voters who do not vote by mail will be able to vote at 11 voting centers around the county, including Parker, Upriver, Poston, Bouse, Wenden, Salome, Vicksburg, Quartzsite, Cibola and Ehrenberg. Voters can also cast their ballots early in person at the La Paz County Recorder’s Office at 1112 Joshua Avenue in Parker. For a full list of voting centers, go HERE.
Will each judge support a law that gives a social security number to a newly conceived fetus and require back child support to the moment of the egg being fertilized?
Do any of these people hold a law degree? We are woefully short of qualified professionals in La Paz County. No wonder in a place that essentially treats education as if it were a nuisance.
Each candidate is a licensed lawyer. See https://www.azcourts.gov/AZ-Courts/Superior-Court
Quickle has been licensed since 2005 in AZ and Kelley since 2014.