By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – The public will get a chance on Wednesday to weigh in on the nomination of Associate Attorney General Anne M. Edwards Parker of Milford to be a Superior Court judge.
After the council meeting at 2 p.m., the public will be given an opportunity to comment on the governor’s most recent judicial nomination.
Sununu nominated Edwards, who has 32 years of experience in the law and has been a long-time member of the staff at the Department of Justice.
A native of the state and a graduate of both Saint Anselm College in 1986 and Boston University Law School in 1989, she worked for private law firms in Manchester and Nashua before being tapped to work at the Department of Justice in 1996.
An experienced trial attorney who is now the state’s lead on educating funding, property tax issues, and mental health, an area of expertise has also been in ballot and election law.
She has overseen the Attorney General’s oversight of elections for over 20 years and has maintained they are free of widespread voter fraud when issues or concerns have come up, including in May 2018 when she told the state’s Ballot Law Commission there was no evidence of out-of-state voters illegally casting ballots in the Granite State.
She was recommended by the Judicial Selection Commission on March 2 and noted in her application, “I do not just advocate on behalf of an agency but rather the good of the state.”
She said the role of a judge and an attorney at the Attorney General’s Office is somewhat similar and she sees being a judge as a way to give back to her state.
The five-member Executive Council will be listening to the public as well as questioning Edwards, as is customary for all judicial nominations.
The council has received two letters related to her nomination as of Tuesday afternoon, one in favor and one opposed.
Pat Mittleider, executive assistant for the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains, based in Bedford, N.H., wrote that Edwards is a lifetime Girl Scout who now serves as the council’s Board President and has been an at large and long-time volunteer of the organization.
“She is a woman of integrity and intelligence. She will make an excellent judge!” the letter from Mittleider reads.
Deborah Sumner of Jaffrey wrote the council to oppose the nomination citing Edwards has not been doing her job to protect the citizens by her “failure to act.”
“I am one who has suffered great hurt and harm because of her years of ‘looking the other way’ and protecting people in the system instead of the public interest,” Sumner wrote.
Without specific complaints about Edwards’ work, she cited “the CULTURE” and the link between the bench and the Attorney General’s Office.
She wrote the bench leans to support the Attorney General’s Office because of many former employees.
She noted a court case she had related to an incident in which a ballot was destroyed by an election official and was handled by Judge John Kissinger, a former assistant attorney general.
“I would expect Ms. Edwards to demonstrate the same bias,” she said, “as Kissinger did, thus removing the checks and balances expected of and needed from an independent judiciary.”
Those who would like to address the council but cannot attend can also send in comments and recommendations to the council as a whole or individual councilors with email information here https://www.nh.gov/council/contact-us/index.htm.
The vote on Edwards’ nomination could be as early as May 16.