Magistrate judge candidates both first-time campaigners

CLOVIS — While many of Clovis’ local elections were decided in the June primary, voters still have to determine next month which of two women will serve Division 1 the next four years as magistrate judge, a seat to be vacated by incumbent Duane Castleberry.

It’s been the first political campaign for both Jane Marie Vander Dussen and Nicole Roybal, the respective Republican and Democrat candidates, and they told The News last week about their experiences so far on the trail.

If phase one before the primary wasn’t challenging enough — for they both faced opponents to earn the party nomination — the period since then has brought that to another level.

“Definitely, the last four months have been more demanding,” Vander Dussen said. “It’s definitely been a learning experience, and it’s made me step out of my comfort zone and develop thick skin, but it’s definitely an experience I’ve been glad I’ve been able to endure because it’s made me a better person and hopefully a better judge.”

Some of those challenges, she said, included “speaking on point” and “answering questions that are not ordinary.”

One way or another, that will probably slow down a bit after the election.

Roybal had a similar perspective on the escalated demands since the summer, and was also feeling some of the exposure of the life in public eye.

“Before the primary I was busy, but definitely busier now,” she said. “It’s difficult because I’ve always been out in the community, I’ve always enjoyed going to community events ... but now I’m more recognizable, so I seem to get recognized everywhere I go. Which is interesting...”

To be sure, it’s busier yet now, as the candidates continue a push for visible signage, public appearances and old-fashioned door-to-door visits.

“Just getting out, knocking on doors so people can definitely put a face to the name,” Vander Dussen said. “Reaching out to people is the biggest thing, so people know who you are. A lot of times people go to the polls and they’ve never heard of you, and that is something I think is an issue.”

There are at least a few public events to bring the candidates together in the closing weeks before election, including a radio forum at the end of the month and a “meet your candidate” event Oct. 25 in Ranchvale. Roybal said she’s tried to be accessible and will stay that way.

“Every opportunity that I have to go in to explain to somebody why they should elect me, I am all about it,” she said.

Each candidate has several years of ongoing experience with the courts, but from different angles. Vander Dussen has nine years courtroom experience with the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s victim advocate program; she has a master’s degree in social work and a bachelor’s in criminal justice. Roybal is a certified paralegal working with “13 years of hands-on experience working side by side with different attorneys,” and her mother started Clovis’ Teen Court; after graduating with a degree in legal studies, Roybal was a judge in that court.

As director of the local victim advocate program, Vander Dussen has worked on cases involving homicide, sexual assault, child abuse and domestic violence. Many of those cases are felonies, while a magistrate judge hears primarily misdemeanors (felony cases are bound over to district court after probable cause is determined). Yet Vander Dussen pointed out that certain domestic cases limited to “simple battery” are misdemeanors, and she cited work in college for civil and real estate attorneys as well as her post-bachelor degree in helping her to “understand all aspects of the law ... how to look at a situation as a whole.”

Roybal believed her own courtroom experience to be ample preparation for the different sorts of cases she hopes to address as a judge.

“I am completely unbiased. I don’t work for a state entity that is in a courtroom. I believe that the fairest trial will be had in my courtroom,” she said. “I have worked for attorneys that have been in magistrate court for all different reasons, not just for criminal cases, which is what the district attorney handles. We have been in there for civil suits, landlord-tenants...”

Fair treatment before the law was a returning point for Roybal, who said she’d heard concerns from voters about “large money continuing to run Clovis.” Still, she believed her opponent would “be a great judge” and noted in either case “one of us is going to be the first female magistrate court judge, which is a big deal.”

But what will ultimately determine the race?

“It’s just going to be who gets out and actually votes. You have to get out and make known who you want,” Vander Dussen said. “I think if people actually looked at the qualifications of the candidates, they will realize that I am the best individual for judge.”

Vander Dussen concluded the interview with a statement: “My passion for fairness and the criminal justice system and my love for the community is what is inspiring me to do God’s work from behind the bench.”

In her interview, Roybal asserted: “I will make it my life’s work to ensure that everybody who comes into my courtroom feels as though they receive the most fair and just trial they could possibly receive no matter who they are, who their family is or how much money they have.”

She said she “pray(s) that what’s right for this community ... is what happens.”