DEARBORN — The candidates for 19th District Court Judge made their way to Bint Jebail Cultural Center in Dearborn last Wednesday night for a forum to discuss key issues of importance to voters.

The forum guests were candidates Mark Somers, the current 19th District Court judge, and challenger Candyce Abbatt, a local attorney. The event was attended by various Dearborn community leaders, residents and members of the Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC) and was taped for use in discussions about the group’s endorsement of a candidate.

Judicial candidates for 19th District Court Candyce Abbatt, left , and Mark Somers listen to a question from AAPAC Endorsement Chair Abed Hammoud, right, at a candidates forum on Wednesday. Photo: Nick Meyer/TAAN

Each candidate was given two minutes to answer questions submitted on cards by the audience and AAPAC members, and questions were read by endorsement chair Abed Hammoud, who served as moderator for the evening.
Hammoud reminded the audience how important the race is because the winner will receive a six-year term on the bench. Normally, AAPAC relies mostly on personal interviews to choose the candidate it wishes to endorse, but this year, the race is so tightly contested that the group felt it needed to give each candidate additional time to explain his or her position.

The first group of questions was mainly for both candidates while the second round featured questions aimed at individual candidates.

Somers began the forum by laying out his accomplishments as judge for the audience. He talked about how he helped turn a $777,000 deficit into a $790,000 surplus during his time on the bench and also boasted that there are now more Arab Americans working for the court than ever before.

Abbatt responded by talking about her family’s long history in Dearborn and her commonality with the community. She talked about her career in family law and three-year term as chairperson of the Dearborn Library Commission. Abbatt said a friend had a bad experience with Somers in court, which factored into her choice to run for judge.

Abbatt later said that the court needed a more diverse representation of members to reflect the Dearborn community, and Somers agreed, saying that the need for bi-lingual members was important and that a letter of protest he wrote “fell on deaf ears.”

There wasn’t much agreement between the two candidates after that, however, especially as the individual round of questioning began.

Abbatt talked about forming a community coalition much like the one the city of Troy currently has, and talked about how kids need to know who their judges are. Somers responded by referencing a trip he made to an elementary school in March to read to children and also how he often hires interns from middle school up through law school to assist him in the court.

Abbatt then questioned Somers on religious messages he wrote on court stationary to which Somers responded that he made a couple of mistakes and should have written them on his own stationary or his home computer. One was for a man dying of cancer in a hospice that Somers felt the court had accidentally been insensitive to.

Somers took issue with Abbatt’s tactics.

“To make this an issue is frankly disgusting,” he said.

Abbatt said that the mistakes showed a “lack of good judgment and were inappropriate” before saying that “Somers seemed arrogant” at the debate.

Another hot topic was the three federal lawsuits for gender discrimination that have been filed against the 19th-District Court.

The lawsuits involve disgruntled former employees that Somers said were let go for business and budget reasons but Abbatt called the cases “red flags” that could not be ignored despite the fact that they haven’t been settled yet. Somers maintains that the firings were necessary for budget and other business reasons.

In closing statements, Abbatt said she admired AAPAC and asked them to do “what’s in the best interest of the community as they have always done.”

Somers thanked AAPAC for the forum and then chided Abbatt for her campaign mailings that “were riddled with half truths and innuendos,” he said. “It’s all negative on the other side,” he concluded.

The vote for 19th District Court judge will take place in the general election on November 4, 2008.