Bar association survey reveals broad support for judges on ballot

Indiana State Bar Association members gave strong support in a recent poll to four judges appearing on next month’s general election ballot.

The bar association surveyed its members about whether Indiana Court of Appeals judges Mary A. DeBoer, Paul A. Felix and Dana J. Kenworthy should be retained. The survey also asked about Indiana Tax Court Judge Justin L. McAdam.

Respondents said “yes” more than 86% of the time for each judge, according to the bar association.

The association’s 6,592 members were notified about the poll on Sept. 1, and a reminder was shared with them Sept. 15, communications manager Megan Lease said.

The association received a total of 258 submissions, which leads to a response rate of only about 4%.

Lease said the survey was on a login-restricted webpage to keep outside factors from skewing results. She noted that can cause a lower response rate.

She also said that a subset of the bar association’s membership, appellate attorneys, was most likely to respond since they have the most interaction with those judges.

The judges face an approval vote in the first general election at least two years after their appointment and then every 10 years after that.

Former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb appointed DeBoer in 2024, Felix in 2023 and Kenworthy in 2022. Holcomb appointed McAdam to the tax court bench in 2023.

Election day this year is Nov. 3.