The Virginia Senate is poised to reconsider its friends and family plan when it comes to judicial appointments. In recent years some in the Virginia General Assembly have been reluctant to elect judges who are members of a sitting lawmaker’s immediate family — an acknowledgment of concern about nepotism creeping into the already highly politicized judicial selection process.

Observance of the unwritten rule led, in part, to the decision of Del. Harry Purkey, R-Virginia Beach, last year to retire from the chamber to remove an impediment to the prospects of his daughter, Charlotte, for a local judgeship.

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In December, Sen. Thomas Norment, R-James City County, declined to interview Ketron along with other judges up for reappointment before a legislative panel of delegates and senators. Ketron’s interim appointment expires at the end of this week unless she is appointed to a full six-year term.

In an interview Monday, Puckett said he asked Norment about that time what he could do “to help the situation. And he said, ‘If you weren’t a senator, it wouldn’t be an issue’,” Puckett said.


http://www.roanoke.com/news/politics/article_228f8de6-8d3f-11e3-b10a-0017a43b2370.html