Mississippi judicial elections, 2014

Mississippi judicial elections, 2014
Overview
Total candidates:	160
General election candidates:	160
Incumbency
Incumbents:	114
Incumbent success rate:	99%
Competition - general election
Percent of candidates in contested races:	42%
Percent uncontested:	58%

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The Mississippi judicial elections in 2014 featured the nonpartisan elections of many trial court judges. Mississippi does not hold primaries, so most races were decided on November 4. A few advanced to a runoff on November 25, 2014.

In total, 160 judicial candidates ran in the nonpartisan general election. Ninety-three were unopposed, while 67 participated in contested races. Incumbents made up 71% of those running.

See: Mississippi elections summary, 2014.

Election dates

• May 9: Filing deadline
• November 4: General election
• November 25: Runoff

In addition to candidate lists, this page includes information about how the state's judicial elections work, as well as articles about noteworthy news in races across the state.

Runoff election

Results from the runoff election on November 25, 2014:

Circuit Court, District 2, Place 2

• Chris Schmidt, 60%A
• Robert Fant Walker, 40%A

Circuit Court, District 3, Place 2

• Kelly Luther, 76.3%A
• Shirley C. Byers, 23.7%A

Circuit Court, District 4, Place 3

• Carol White-Richard, 54.2%A
• Takiyah H. Perkins, 45.8%A

Circuit Court, District 18

• Dal Williamson, 67%A
• Billy Joe Landrum (I), 33%A

Adams County Court, Seat 1

• Walt J. Brown, 57%A
• Patricia F. Dunmore, 43%A

General election: Contested races

(I) denotes incumbent

Circuit Court, District 1, Place 2

• Dennis H. Farris, Sr., 31.0%A
• Paul Funderburk (I), 69.0%A

Circuit Court, District 2, Place 2

• Chris Schmidt, 42% (to runoff)A
• Robert Fant Walker, 34% (to runoff)A
• Myles Sharp, 24%A

Circuit Court, District 3, Place 2

• J. Kizer Jones, 18.7%A
• Kelly Luther, 37.1% (to runoff)A
• Shirley C. Byers, 44.2% (to runoff)A

Circuit Court, District 4, Place 1

• George Dunbar Prewitt, Jr., 21.1%A
• Richard Smith (I), 79.0%A

Circuit Court, District 4, Place 3

• Carol White-Richard, 43.3% (to runoff)A
• Takiyah H. Perkins, 34.2% (to runoff)A
• James Littleton, 22.5%A

Circuit Court, District 4, Place 4

• Ashley Hines (I), 57.9%A
• Willie L. Bailey, 42.1%A

Circuit Court, District 7, Place 1

• Ali ShamsidDeen, 35%A
• Jeff Weill (I), 65%A

Circuit Court, District 8, Place 1

• Don Kilgore, 41%A
• Marcus Gordon (I), 59.3%A

Circuit Court, District 9, Place 2

• Edwin Woods, Jr., 20.1%A
• M. James Chaney, Jr. (I), 79.3% A

Circuit Court, District 11, Place 3

• Chaka D. Smith, 41.9% A
• Charles Webster (I), 58.1% A

Circuit Court, District 12

• Chad Shook, 24.9%A
• Robert Helfrich (I), 75.2%A

Circuit Court, District 13

• Eddie Bowen (I), 59.0%A
• Reggie Blackledge, 41.0%A

Circuit Court, District 15, Place 1

• Anthony A. Mozingo (I), 59.5%A
• James L. Gray, 40.5%A

Circuit Court, District 16, Place 3

• Lee S. Coleman (I), 60.8%A
• Monique Montgomery, 39.3%A

Circuit Court, District 18

• Billy Joe Landrum (I), 27.6% (to runoff)A
• Dal Williamson, 38.8% (to runoff)A
• Grant Hedgepeth, 13%A
• J. Ronald Parrish, 21%A

Chancery Court, District 8, Place 2

• C. Stephen Benvenutti, 33.6%A
• Jennifer Schloegel (I), 66.4%A

Chancery Court, District 8, Place 3

• Ronnie Cochran, 40.4%A
• Sanford R. Steckler (I), 59.6%A

Chancery Court, District 11, Place 1

• Barbara Ann Bluntson, 40.3%A
• Robert G. Clark III, 59.7%A

Chancery Court, District 13, Place 1

• David Shoemake (I), 55.4% A
• J. Larry Buffington, 44.7% A

Chancery Court, District 13, Place 2

• Deborah Kennedy, 26.1%A
• Gerald M. Martin, 41.5% A
• Mary K. Burnham, 32.5%A

Chancery Court, District 16, Place 1

• D. Neil Harris, 50.03%A
• Paula S. Yancey, 49.97%A

Chancery Court, District 16, Place 3

• Gary L. Roberts, 41.2%A
• Michael L. Fondren, 58.8%A

Chancery Court, District 18, Place 1

• Carnelia Pettis Fondren, 22.4%A
• Glenn Alderson (I), 59.7%A
• Tina Duggard Scott, 23.1%A

Chancery Court, District 18, Place 2

• Helen Kennedy Robinson, 42.8%A
• Robert Q. Whitwell (I), 57.3%A

Adams County Court, Seat 1

• Walt J. Brown, 30.3% (to runoff)A
• Patricia F. Dunmore, 36.6% (to runoff)A
• Lamar Bullen, 11.5%A
• Brandi Lewis, 9.3%A
• Scott Pintard, 4.1%A
• Scott Slover, 8.2%A

Bolivar County Court, Seat 1

• W. Hunter Nowell (I), 50.8%A
• Aelicia L. Thomas, 49.2%A

Harrison County Court, Place 3

• Herbert W. Wilson, 32%A
• Margaret Alfonso (I), 68%A

Jones County Court, Seat 1

• Gaylon K. Harper (I), 85.6%A
• Eric Tiebauer, 14.4%A

General election: Uncontested

The following candidates were elected or re-elected after running unopposed in the general election.

Appellate courts

Court	Candidate
Click the arrows in the column headings to sort columns alphabetically.
Court of Appeals	Jimmy Maxwell
Court of Appeals	T. Kenneth Griffis
Court of Appeals	Virginia Carlton

Trial courts

Court	Candidate
Click the arrows in the column headings to sort columns alphabetically.
Eleventh Judicial District	Albert B. Smith
DeSoto County Court	Allen Couch
Third Judicial District	Andrew Howorth
8th Chancery District	Carter Bise
7th Chancery District	Catherine Farris-Carter
DeSoto County Court	Celeste Wilson
Fifth Judicial District	Clarence Morgan
11th Chancery District	Cynthia L. Brewer
6th Chancery District	D. Joseph Kilgore
Nineteenth Judicial District	Dale Harkey
20th Chancery District	Dan Fairly
Fourteenth Judicial District	David Strong
10th Chancery District	Dawn H. Beam
4th Chancery Court	Debbra K. Halford
10th Chancery District	Deborah J. Gambrell
5th Chancery District	Denise Owens
Yazoo County Court	Derek E. Parker
14th Chancery District	Dorothy W. Colom
15th Chancery District	Edward E. Patten, Jr.
6th Chancery District	Edward Fenwick
Madison County Court	Edwin Hannan
Sixth Judicial District	Forrest Johnson
19th Chancery District	Franklin C. McKenzie, Jr.
Harrison County Court	Gaston H. Hewes, Jr.
17th Chancery District	George Ward
Seventeenth Judicial District	Gerald Chatham, Sr.
2nd Chancery District	H. David Clark, II
Ninth Judicial District	Isadore Patrick
5th Chancery District	J. Dewayne Thomas
1st Chancery District	Jacqueline Mask
First Judicial District	James L. Roberts
Seventeenth Judicial District	James McClure, III
Sixteenth Judicial District	James T. Kitchens
9th Chancery District	Jane R. Weathersby
Twenty-first Judicial District	Jannie Lewis
16th Chancery District	Jaye A. Bradley
12th Chancery District	Jerry G. Mason
14th Chancery District	Jim Davidson
8th Chancery District	Jim Persons
First Judicial District	Jim Pounds
Third Judicial District	John A. Gregory
1st Chancery District	John A. Hatcher
20th Chancery District	John Grant
Twentieth Judicial District	John H. Emfinger
Eleventh Judicial District	Johnnie E. Walls, Jr.
10th Chancery District	Johnny Lee Williams
7th Chancery District	Jon M. Barnwell
Fifth Judicial District	Joseph Loper
Nineteenth Judicial District	Kathy King Jackson
14th Chancery District	Kenneth M. Burns
Twenty-second Judicial District	Lamar Pickard
Second Judicial District	Larry Bourgeois
12th Chancery District	Lawrence Primeaux
Sixteenth Judicial Districts	Lee Howard (Mississippi)
Tenth Judicial District	Lester Williamson
Sixth Judicial District	Lillie Sanders
Second Judicial District	Lisa Dodson
Fourth Judicial District	Margaret Carey-McCray
9th Chancery District	Marie Wilson
1st Chancery District	Michael Malski
Fourteenth Judicial District	Michael Taylor (Mississippi)
Forrest County Court	Michael W. McPhail
3rd Chancery District	Mitchell M. Lundy, Jr.
5th Chancery District	Patricia D. Wise
3rd Chancery District	Percy L. Lynchard, Jr.
Fifteenth Judicial District	Prentiss Harrell
Pearl River County Court	Richelle Lumpkin
Tenth Judicial District	Robert Bailey
Seventeenth Judicial District	Robert Chamberlin
Nineteenth Judicial District	Robert Krebs
Harrison County Court	Robin Alfred Midcalf
Second Judicial District	Roger Clark
10th Chancery District	Ronald Doleac
Jackson County Court	Sharon W. Sigalas
Seventeenth Judicial District	Smith Murphey
Madison County Court	Steve Ratcliff
Jackson County Court	T. Larry Wilson
1st Chancery District	Talmadge Littlejohn
First Judicial District	Thomas Gardner
Seventh Judicial District	Tomie Green
Eighth Judicial District	Vernon Cotten
3rd Chancery District	Vicki B. Cobb
9th Chancery District	Vicki Barnes
17th Chancery District	Vincent Davis
7th Chancery District	W.M. Sanders
Seventh Judicial District	William A. Gowan
Lamar County Court	William Andrews
Twentieth Judicial District	William Chapman
5th Chancery District	William H. Singletary
Seventh Judicial District	Winston Kidd

Process

Judges in Mississippi participate in nonpartisan elections, except for the justice court judges, who are selected in partisan elections. All judicial elections take place in even-numbered years except for municipal elections, which are staggered to occur in odd years.

Primary election

Mississippi does not hold primary elections for judicial candidates.

General election

Qualified judicial candidates, including unopposed candidates, appear on the general election ballot. There is no indication of party affiliation—and when two or more candidates are competing for a seat, they are listed in alphabetical order.

The winner of the general election is determined by majority vote. If no candidate receives a majority (over 50 percent) of the votes, the top two candidates advance to a runoff election that takes place three weeks later.

Noteworthy events

The following articles were current as of the dates listed.

Judicial candidates could have to run twice due to redistricting May 8, 2014

Click for story→

See also: JP Election Brief: Judicial voting round-up The state's filing deadline for judicial candidates was May 9. A majority of incumbents did not face any opposition in their bids for re-election. Jimmy Maxwell, T. Kenneth Griffis and Virginia Carlton all ran unopposed to keep their seats on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. Hinds County was one of the few exceptions. Three seats on courts in the county were contested in the 2014 general election. Incumbent Jeff Weill squared off against opponent Ali Shamsiddeen for a seat on the district court. Meanwhile, incumbent William Skinner, and opponents Malcolm O. Harrison and Johnnie McDaniels, competed for Skinner's seat on the Hinds County Court. A third race, for Houston Patton's seat, also on the county court, drew four candidates. Kimberly Campbell, Henry Clay, Bridgett Clayton and LaRita Cooper Stokes all competed for the seat in November. The state's supreme court and appeals court judges are elected to eight-year terms. Judges on the state's other courts are elected to four-year terms. However, some judges, elected in 2014, may have to run before their terms expire because state legislators failed to agree on a judicial redistricting plan before the end of their 2014 legislative session. The plans to add some judges and redraw the lines for some districts were supposed to be completed and put into place before the 2014 elections. However, legislators later stated they hoped to complete those plans by the end of 2015. Both the house and senate considered bills to reconfigure judicial districts in early April 2014, before their sessions ended. Adding chancery and circuit court judges was a priority in both bills. The house bill had also called for dividing Madison and Rankin counties into two circuit court districts. Currently both counties are part of the Twentieth Judicial District. The house bill would have created a new 22nd Circuit Court District for Rankin County and provided two judges for the court. There was no option to give those counties their own district courts in the senate's version of the bill. The chairmen for the house and senate judiciary committees disagreed on what affect the delay in approving a plan could have on judges elected in 2014. According to an article in The Clarion-Ledger, Senate Judiciary, Division A Chairman Briggs Hopson said, because of changes in precincts or districts, "there probably won't be an election until the next scheduled judicial election in 2018." However, House Judiciary A Committee Chairman Mark Baker believed not putting a plan in place before the 2014 elections could make it necessary for some judges to run again in November 2015. According to state law, legislators did have to finish their plan to redraw judicial districts until 2015. After that, it will be another ten years before adjustments to the state's judicial districts can be made again.

See also

• Mississippi judicial elections
• Judicial selection in Mississippi

External links

• Mississippi Secretary of State: Elections

Footnotes

Mississippi courts

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Federal courts:

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Northern District of Mississippi, Southern District of Mississippi • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Northern District of Mississippi, Southern District of Mississippi

State courts:

Mississippi Supreme Court • Mississippi Court of Appeals • Mississippi circuit courts • Mississippi Chancery Court • Mississippi county courts • Mississippi justice courts • Mississippi youth courts • Mississippi Municipal Courts

State resources:

Courts in Mississippi • Mississippi judicial elections • Judicial selection in Mississippi