Appeals Court: Schuman.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Oregon's judicial elections are supposed to be apolitical affairs. Candidates run without the blessing - or curse - of party affiliation, and judicial rules of conduct bar them from talking about much more than their resumes.

Such restrictions, however, don't always keep politics from seeping into judicial races, as has happened in the May primary contest for the Oregon Court of Appeals.

David Schuman, a 57-year-old former Oregon deputy attorney general who was appointed by Gov. John Kitzhaber to fill a vacancy on the Court of Appeals last year, is running against David Hunnicutt, the 37-year-old lead counsel for Oregonians in Action, a conservative property rights group.

Hunnicutt's conservative backers have made no attempt to conceal their dislike of Schuman, whom they regard as typical of the judges that Democratic governors have appointed for the past 16 years - left-leaning, hostile to the initiative process, and a hindrance to aggressive prosecution of criminals.

It's a crass, unwarranted stereotype that itself reveals an ideologically driven effort to politicize Oregon's judiciary and compromise its independence and impartiality. Voters should focus on the most important - and relevant - question: Which candidate is best qualified to serve on the Oregon Court of Appeals?

The clear answer is Schuman, whose extraordinary background and experience could serve as a template for future judicial aspirants.

A former college English teacher, Schuman began studying the law at age 38. After graduating with honors from the University of Oregon Law School, he worked as judicial clerk to Oregon Supreme Court Justice Hans Linde and spent a decade at the UO as a highly regarded and widely published law professor.

From 1997 to 2001, Schuman served as deputy attorney general, where he oversaw a staff of 200 lawyers and handled a broad array of legal issues, ranging from assisted suicide to national tobacco litigation. He was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Appeals Court in March 2001. Since then, he has written 36 opinions, not one of which has been reversed by a higher court.

Hunnicutt graduated from Lewis and Clark Law School in 1992 and spent four years in private practice with his father in St. Helens before becoming legal director for Oregonians in Action in 1996. Since then, Hunnicutt has argued land use cases, has lobbied against Oregon's land use policies, and has authored and campaigned for several ballot measures.

Two years ago, Hunnicutt helped lead a successful statewide campaign for Measure 7, a constitutional amendment requiring government to compensate property owners when regulations lower their property values. At the time, Schuman was deputy attorney general and led the state's defense of Measure 7 - a defense that Oregonians in Action and others believe was intentionally weak and resulted in the measure being overturned by a Marion County judge. Hunnicutt's backers have gone so far as to suggest that Kitzhaber rewarded Schuman for undermining Measure 7's defense with the appointment to the appellate court.

It's the kind of theory that plays well with conspiracy freaks and the truly paranoid. It's also patently false and demeaning to the well-established integrity of Schuman, Attorney General Hardy Myers and Kitzhaber. A complaint filed against Schuman with the Oregon State Bar was dismissed. Legal experts - including former Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer, who supports Schuman's candidacy -have characterized his handling of Measure 7's defense as thorough and professional.

Hunnicutt says the focus of his campaign is not about Measure 7 or Schuman's handling of it. He says he wants to bring to the court his understanding of how everyday Oregonians are affected by the law and to make procedural changes that he believes would improve the court's efficiency.

The challenger also makes it clear that he views the court's proper role as interpreting, not overturning, voter-approved initiatives, as well as laws approved by the Legislature. Hunnicutt's supporters clearly believe that he would vote differently from Schuman on such issues. That's a political agenda that doesn't belong in an Oregon judicial campaign that should be focused on experience, qualifications and, yes, judicial temperament.

In each of these areas, Schuman has the clear edge over Hunnicutt. That view resonates in a recent Oregon State Bar poll in which 85 percent of the lawyers responding supported Schuman's candidacy.

Oregonians should vote to keep David Schuman on the Oregon Court of Appeals.