Paul A. Hackner just earned a promotion and one of the first things he has to do is figure out how to keep his new job.
Chosen late Friday for a seat on the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court bench, Hackner, a District Court judge since 1997, suddenly has been thrust into an election campaign.
He was one of four appointees to the bench, but is the only one who must run in the fall elections. The other three appointees are filling vacancies that were created less than a year before the 2002 election, so they don't have to run for another two years.
Hackner spent Sunday evening discussing fund-raisers with Circuit Judge Nancy Davis-Loomis, who will be the other judge on the ballot. And he spent his mid-morning break from hearing District Court cases yesterday clicking through the state Board of Elections Web site.
"Now that I've been appointed," he said, "I have to hustle."
Gov. Parris N. Glendening named him to replace retiring Judge Robert H. Heller Jr., who would have stood for re-election to a 15-year term this fall.
Hackner does not yet know when he will be sworn in - but it has to be in the next four weeks because he can't file candidacy papers by the July 1 deadline to stay in the $119,600-a-year post if he isn't already on the bench.
Hackner, 52, a married father of three, said he would rather spend his spare time playing guitar - honing classical skills and playing '60s rock 'n' roll with friends in his Annapolis neighborhood - than telling voters about his credentials.
He spent his early years in Sao Paulo, Brazil; his family moved to the United States when he was 12. A graduate of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, he received an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1972 and earned a law degree from Catholic University's Columbus School of Law.
He worked as an assistant state's attorney and defense lawyer in Prince George's County.
He went on to practice in prominent firms in Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties, where his partners included Bruce L. Marcus, Glendening's personal attorney. Hackner was drawn to complex civil litigation, especially construction, real estate and personal injury cases.
Hackner had a tiny role as local counsel to Glendening in Republican gubernatorial hopeful Ellen Sauerbrey's court challenge to the governor's 1994 victory. He also had a small role as local counsel for Ruthann Aron, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate who claimed that her opponent in the 1994 GOP primary had defamed her.
"It rounded out my credentials," joked Hackner, a registered Democrat. Judicial candidates run in both the Democratic and GOP primaries.
Hackner said he has enjoyed the fast pace of the District Court, but wanted the professional challenge of the more complex Circuit Court cases.
"I'd like to have the ability to deliberate a little more and not be as rushed," he said.
Hackner speaks Portuguese and Spanish. In an effort to improve court access for non-English speakers, he has served as Spanish-language editor for a short video that explains legal rights to people who have been arrested. He also participated in a mock trial in Spanish geared for people who, he said, "come from places where courts are not seen as a place where you go for help." He also is the vice chairman of a state judiciary committee looking at interpreter services and court documents that are not in English.
No challengers have emerged for the seats held by Hackner and Davis-Loomis. The last time Anne Arundel voters kicked out a sitting judge was in 1976, when they favored lawyer Bruce C. Williams over incumbent Karl F. Biener. Two years ago, the ticket of Philip T. Caroom and James C. Cawood Jr. raised about $10,000 in a single fund-raiser, but when no opponents stepped forward, they donated the money to local charities.
Davis-Loomis knew she would be running this year, but said she delayed launching her campaign until she knew with whom she'd be sharing the ballot. When she learned that Hackner had been appointed, she said, she called him to congratulate him - and to ask him to run together.