Judicial Nominating Commission Begins Process to Fill County and Circuit Judgeship

The Seventh Judicial Circuit includes Flagler, St. Johns, Volusia and Putnam counties. It has 27 circuit judges, any of whom may end up serving in any of the four counties, and 17 county judges usually assigned to their home county. Flagler has two circuit judges (Terence Perkins and Chris France) and two county judges (Melissa Distler and Andrea Totten).

In Volusia, Circuit Court Judge Margaret Hudson retired last week after 17 years on the bench. She was appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2006 and ran unopposed in three elections since as she served in various courts.

In Flagler, Hudson was the presiding judge in the protracted state’s case against Kimberle Weeks, the former elections supervisor eventually found guilty on seven felony counts of illegally recording others, counts subsequently reduced to four on appeal.

Gov. Ron DeSantis elevated Putnam County Judge Joseph Boatwright to the reconfigured Fifth District Court of Appeal in December, creating the Puntam vacancy.




Circuit and county judges are usually elected. When a vacancy occurs during a term, it’s the responsibility of the Judicial Nominating Commission to field applications, interview the candidates, then forward a short-list of candidates to the governor, who makes the appointment. Each circuit has its own nominating commission.

On Tuesday, the commission will discuss by phone only the parameters of coming interviews–setting deadlines for applications, locations for interviews, and so on. The applications are publicly available through the Florida Bar’s site (DeSantis and the Legislature have not yet closed that part of the process, as they have college and university president searches). The interviews will consist of 15-minute rapid-fire, in-person questioning. Those interviews are open to the public, but usually draw, at most, a few people.

The commission has until February 15 to complete its work, according to a release issued by its chair, Terrence White.

The commissions used to be independent bodies. The governor chose three JNC members, the Florida Bar chose three, and the combined six picked three additional, non-lawyer members. Then-Gov. Jeb Bush convinced the Legislature in 2000 to grant the governor what amounts to a rank power-grab: the governor would make all nine appointments from then on, on all commissions, and has, with just four of the appointments from a shortlist provided by the Florida Bar.

That has sharply politicized the process and reduced judicial independence, ensuring that both JNC members and their recommended nominees are ideologically aligned with the sitting governor. It does not necessarily exclude stellar candidates. But it narrows their range and heightens political angling. It isn’t uncommon for JNC members to ask candidates how they intend to run successful political campaigns, when they’re up for election.




Openings generally attract a dozen or more candidates–typically, lawyers in private practice, assistant state attorneys, assistant public defenders looking for the prestige and steadier paycheck of a judgeship: a county court judge earns $172,000 a year, a circuit judge $182,000, as of this year.

The Seventh Judicial Circuit’s nominating commission’s current membership consists of eight members, with one vacancy. It is chaired by Terrence White of Upchurch Watson White & Max in Ormond Beach. Only one of the members is from Flagler County: attorney Raven Sword. The others are L. Charlene Matthews (Volusia), Kelly Parson Kwiatek (Volusia), John Reid (Volusia), Mark Stanton (Putnam), Travis Mydock (St. Johns) and Andrew Morgan (St. Johns).

The last time the commission met in person in Flagler County was in 2019, when its process eventually led to the appointment of Andrea Totten as Flagler County’s second county judge. It is likely to have to meet again, after February, though perhaps not until the end of the year, or the beginning of next year, this time for a judge in Flagler: Senior Judge Terrence Perkins last May intimated that he could be retiring by the end of 2023. But when asked about that a few weeks ago, he suggested that it was not necessarily as final as he had made it sound.