Last month's swearing-in of Baltimore County Circuit Judge Kathleen G. Cox featured a guest unusual, if not unprecedented, for a Towson judicial induction: the governor of Maryland.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening didn't attend just for the pomp and circumstance -- he attended to send a message of political support for Cox, the second woman chosen for the county Circuit Court bench, who already has a challenger in the 2000 election.

With memories fresh of an ugly campaign that unseated Howard County's first African-American judge three years ago, Glendening was moving quickly to back Cox and another of his appointees, Judge Alexander Wright, Baltimore County's first black Circuit Court judge.

"Obviously, it was a statement," said Glendening's legal counsel, Andrea Leahy-Fucheck, of the governor's appearance, adding that the governor had been warned that Cox's appointment could spark a challenge to Cox and Wright in the next election.

Many Towson judges and lawyers are nervous about a repeat of the 1996 Howard County judicial campaign, in which Glendening appointee Donna Hill Staton, that county's first black circuit judge, lost her seat.

In Baltimore County, challenger Robert N. Dugan, a white District Court judge, vows a campaign free of racist or sexist overtones. He says he entered the race for circuit judge because neither he nor two of his District Court colleagues were chosen by the governor.

"I had made it clear that unless I had been appointed, or if either Judge [A. Gordon] Boone Jr. or [Judge G. Darrell] Russell were appointed, I would not run," said Dugan, who filed to run in the March 2000 election before Cox was sworn into office Feb. 14.

He faces an uphill fight: Many in the legal community have expressed support for Cox and Wright. The last time anyone unseated a sitting judge in Baltimore County was in 1938.

Dugan's position -- a white outsider challenging a black and a female sitting judge -- signals a change that has overcome the Baltimore County legal community, once considered one of the last bastions of the "good old boy" network of white male lawyers.

In June, the county's bar association will swear in its first woman president, C. Theresa Beck, a domestic master in the Circuit Court. She has worked in the Towson legal community for 20 years and said she found "nothing but a welcome mat" from her male colleagues, who did not accept women in the bar association until 1962.

Last year, when Circuit Judges John F. Fader II and J. William Hinkel ran for election, they took Wright to numerous political events to show their early support.

The Baltimore County Bar Association's president, Circuit Judge John O. Hennegan, said a potential Howard County situation worries him "because I think [Cox and Wright] deserve support of the citizens."

Fader and Hinkel's action did not go unnoticed by Glendening, who publicly thanked them at Cox's inauguration. The two new judges will inherit a $70,000 campaign fund left from Hinkel and Fader.

Fader, who has been on the circuit bench for 17 years, said racial and gender diversity can only be a good thing, so judges of different backgrounds can relate to the people who appear in their courtrooms.

"It goes back to the Native Americans, who had an old saying, 'Until you walk around in my moccasins, you don't know how I feel,' " said Fader.

"Diversity? It's a good idea. It's a different era," he said.

Wright was a district judge for five years before ascending to the Circuit Court. Before that, he worked in the Maryland attorney general's office for 14 years, representing state agencies.

Cox, a longtime Towson lawyer, was a partner in the Towson office of the Venable, Baetjer and Howard law firm for 10 years. Before that she was a federal public defender.

'A positive campaign'

Dugan, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general in 1982, is passing out campaign literature, planning a May fund-raiser and said he has several lawyers who have worked for sitting judges in previous elections lined up to campaign for him.

Last week he said, "I'm not running against anybody. I'm going to run a positive campaign. This is not going to be another Howard County situation, with accusations going back and forth."

Dugan says he would not have run if one of his District Court colleagues had gotten the appointment because "I feel there's no substitute for prior judicial experience. I was not doing that in a threatening manner."

His comment apparently was aimed at Cox, who has never been a judge.

"If prior judicial experience were some type of qualifier for the Circuit Court, the appointment system would be set up to recognize that," said Cox, noting that many of the court's most respected judges had no judicial experience in the lower court.

'Disappointed'

Wright is taking Dugan's challenge personally.

"I'm disappointed with him as a friend, because it puts me in jeopardy," said Wright of his former District Court colleague. "Heretofore, a person who has these types of credentials has not been challenged. Why now does another person want my job?"

Talk of a potential challenge to the sitting judges went on for months, even before Cox's appointment.

In early January, the women's legislative caucus, dedicated to finding qualified women for appointed positions, made the surprise recommendation of a man for the job -- Russell of the District Court -- who was chosen over Cox and Assistant Public Defender Sally C. Chester, the two women being considered by the governor.

Del. Sue Hecht, a Frederick County Democrat who signed letters to judicial candidates announcing Russell as the caucus' choice, said she does not recall why her organization recommended him because she was on vacation at the time.

State Sen. Delores G. Kelley, a Baltimore County Democrat who is one of the legislators who interviewed candidates, did not return repeated calls.

With a year until the primary election, it remains unclear how many other challengers might enter the race.

Russell said last week that he has no immediate plans to run for Circuit Court. Boone said he has the campaign filing papers on his desk but has not decided whether to run.

Pub Date: 3/08/99