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Udall, Schaffer discuss how they will judge the judges
Colorado’s U.S. Senate candidate, Democrat Mark Udall and Republican Bob Schaffer, both told the state they will look for very different qualities in U.S. Supreme Court nominees that could come before the winner of their race.
According to a Denver Post transcript of the 9News debate, Schaffer stuck to what has become a conservative mantra in judging judges, saying: “I want a judge who is a strict constructionist and has a record of adhering to the Constitution as it is written. I don’t want judges who are interpreting and essentially fabricating law from the bench.”
Touching on similar themes Udall brought up in comments to Political Notebook in August, the Democratic candidate said he likes judicial nominees to have experience off the bench, saying: “I would be looking for someone in the model of two quintessential Western members of the Supreme Court. Sandra Day O’Connor … and previous to her, our own Coloradan Byron ‘Whizzer’ White. They were both moderates. One was a Republican and the other was a Democrat, but they both brought to the bench experience, a judicial temperament, a willingness to look at the broader world.”
*Schaffer, Udall photo from The Daily Sentinel archives.
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