Wednesday, October 28, 2009

From The Inbox- Is retaining Judge Thomas F. Burke, Jr. the right thing to do for Luzerne County?


Judge Burke Times Leader Photo

ELECTION 2009: Judge Thomas Burke: “I’m available to shake their hand, look them in the eye and guarantee them I will live up to my oath of office.”

Is retaining Judge Thomas F. Burke, Jr. the right thing to do for Luzerne County?

I am respectfully asking that you vote “YES” for Judge Tom Burke’s retention on November 3rd. Judicial retention is different than most elections. The candidate stands alone, against no one but him/herself… Judge Burke can stand alone on his record – his integrity, his understanding of the law, his judicial temperament and responsibility. Don’t take my word for it; ask an attorney who has appeared in his court, a juror who has served in his courtroom, a police officer or witness who has testified before him. I am sure you will be satisfied that now is the time when we most need a judge like Tom Burke.

I do not make this request lightly; I understand the importance of your vote on Tuesday, November 3rd. The current environment may encourage the general public to paint Tom Burke with the same brush. That would be unfair. Tom Burke has honestly served as a Judge, day in and day out, for the last ten years and I have never heard or read a word of criticism from anyone about how he does his job. He’s a great Judge who deserves to be retained on his own merit and not judged by the behavior of others.

Tom is not running a TV campaign, he has not asked anyone for a campaign contribution, nor has he accepted any contributions. His campaign is a grass roots campaign, a word of mouth campaign. So I would ask that you send an e-mail similar to this (or you can simply forward this e-mail) to those on your e-mail list so we can spread the word to vote “YES” for Judge Tom Burke’s retention on November 3rd. Ask those on your email list to send the message to those on their email lists, and so on. Person-to-person is the best way we have to communicate this message to Luzerne County voters.

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