Imagine you've applied to become a judge. Vacancies on the bench don't happen every day - it might be good to be king, but it's not so bad to be judge either - so you've polished your application to a high sheen, compiled an all-star list of references, practiced for the nominating commission that recommends whom the governor should appoint, maybe even though you did well enough that you start testing what "The Honorable" looks like in front of your name.
Then you hear who one of your competitors is: a major with the Maryland Army National Guard, currently serving in Iraq. Already has completed a tour in Afghanistan (and returned with a Bronze Star, a silver Medaille de la Defense Nationale from the French and additional chest bling from the Kandahar Provisional Government). Labored - in between those stints fighting global terrorism - in the trenches of the Baltimore state's attorney's office, first prosecuting misdemeanors, then handgun and other felonies, and finally homicides. Traveled to Ethiopia and Haiti for Catholic Relief Services. Oh, and served in the Peace Corps, too.
So do you just cancel that fitting with the robe-maker?
Well, maybe not - the judicial selection process is secretive and often unpredictable. Still, you have to sympathize with the 24 other candidates vying with Charles Blomquist for one of the two vacancies for Baltimore District Court judge.
"We all bring unique experiences and qualifications to the bench or the applicant pool," Blomquist told me by phone from Baghdad last week, displaying, perhaps, that vaunted judicial temperament that the nominating commission looks for. "Mine are somewhat unusual."
It was getting around 11 p.m. in Iraq, and Blomquist was a little reluctant to talk too much - not because of the late hour but to avoid the appearance of campaigning for the appointment. "I'm not trying to win a popular vote," he said.
Candidates for the bench go through an extensive interview process - first with local and state bar associations, which send their ratings to the Judicial Nominating Commission, then with the commissioners themselves. The commission compiles a list of applicants it considers most qualified for the vacancies, and the governor is required to make appointments from that roster.
I've heard that these interviews sometimes can be quite intense even under normal circumstances - they sound like a sort of defend-your-life type of experience, coming before a group that can make or break your chances of becoming a judge - so I can only imagine what they're like conducted over the phone from a war zone.
"It certainly has posed some unique challenges," Blomquist said, first in scheduling the interviews, given the eight-hour time difference between Baltimore and Baghdad, and then conversing through the slight time lag over the long-distance line. Then, there's the inability to read how your answers are playing on the other end, Blomquist said.
"You don't know if they're rolling their eyes," he said. "You don't know if they're aghast at something you just said."
As a major with the National Guard in Baghdad, Blomquist supervises facilities and maintenance projects - from installing power plants to building housing for the troops to replacing some of Iraq's old water pipes.
Blomquist, who lives in Roland Park with his wife, Joan, a physician, and their two sons, was one of 1,300 Maryland National Guard soldiers who were deployed to Iraq last year in the largest call-up of troops from the state since Normandy. They were part of the so-called surge - which just passed its one-year anniversary - that has been credited with reducing violence in Iraq.
"When we first got here, we seemed to attract a lot of attention," he said. "We would get rocketed somewhat frequently. That really has dissipated in the last several months."
Blomquist anticipates coming home in April, which means he would have missed the application process for the District Court vacancies unless he could arrange to do it by mail and phone.
"We were delighted to do it for him," Andrew Radding, who heads the Baltimore City Bar Association's judicial selection committee, said of the special interview arrangements that were made for Blomquist.
He recalled interviewing two candidates in the past by phone, Radding said, when their long-scheduled vacations happened to fall in the middle of the application window. But this, he said, was the first interview from the Middle East and a war zone.
About 15 members of the committee interviewed Blomquist by speaker phone, Radding said, but he declined to say much more because the interviews are confidential, as are the committee's assessments of the candidates.
Radding did say that the interview with Blomquist wasn't interrupted by mortar fire or other battle sounds.
"It was very peaceful," he said.
The bar association's ratings are forwarded to the Judicial Nominating Commission for Baltimore City, which meets this month to interview and vote on which candidates to recommend to Gov. Martin O'Malley.
Radding wouldn't say how Blomquist's military service would figure into his committee's decisions - that would reveal a bit too much about the members' discussions - or whether it should. The committee considers a range of factors, he said, among them experience, knowledge of the law, temperament and involvement in the profession.
Blomquist said his military postings might have interrupted his legal career but also have enriched it by exposing him to a wealth of cultures and groups. Whatever happens with his application, he plans to continue serving with the Guard.
Which makes you wonder how the soldiers under him might have to address him someday. Yes, if it may please your honor, sir!
jean.marbella@baltsun.com