Election season is such a weird, wonderful time. Take, for example, the campaign for two open judgeships.

A veritable stampede of lawyers pulled papers to run. We started with nine (9!) candidates — three vying for the retiring H.A. “Skip” Staley’s seat and the remaining six going after the retiring Clarence Westra’s seat.

Things heated up right off the bat when Ronald Carter, vying for Staley’s seat, dropped out rather than fight elections officials who said he was ineligible because of his on-again-off-again law license status.

The Staley seat has only two candidates and seems to have settled into a sleepy race with occasional public forums.

But scratch the surface of the slate running for Westra’s seat and things get more interesting.

First are rumors that Deputy District Attorney Holly Mitchell, who is black, once vowed to not prosecute African-Americans arrested in southeast Bakersfield because the Bakersfield Police Department engaged in racial profiling.

I personally heard this rumor from a couple of people and received an anonymous letter to that effect.

“That’s an absolute lie,” Mitchell said when I asked about it. “I didn’t say anything like that.”

The District Attorney’s office holds forums with the People’s Missionary Baptist Church in the southeast to increase communication, she said. These were forums she and other DAs helped start several years ago.

At one, she shared a story of how her son — who had never before or  since been in any kind of trouble — was stopped by police and made to lie on the ground at gunpoint.

“They were looking for a car similar to my Dodge Caravan that he was driving at the time,” she said.

She shared that story to explain that, as a mother, it was hard to think of her son held at gunpoint. But as an officer of the court, she knew the police had a job to do and needed to do it a certain way to ensure everyone’s safety.

“The stop wasn’t even based on race, it was because the car description matched what they were looking for,” she said with a hint of exasperation. This wasn’t the first time she’d heard the rumor.

“I prosecute cases based on the law, not who’s committed the crime. I don’t care if you’re African American, white, Hispanic or what. I prosecute what’s put before me.”

Though she works in truancy, she said last summer she prosecuted a few felony cases and, in fact, convicted two black defendants.

Also circulating on the rumor mill is a story about solo practitioner Frank Butkiewicz, Jr.

Back in 1991, it’s said, he grabbed a prosecution witness during a misdemeanor theft trial and was slapped with a hefty fine.

Butkiewicz laughed when I asked him about it.

He said a store security guard was testifying how he’d grabbed Butkiewicz’ client by the lapels and interrogated him.

So, Butkiewicz approached the security guard and put his hands on the guard’s lapels to show the jury.

“Is this what you were doing?” Butkiewicz remembers asking the witness.

No one objected. The judge, then Court Commissioner Lee Felice, didn’t say anything.

Days after the trial Butkiewicz learned a bailiff had made a report about it.

“So, the DA and the judge and I got together and said next time, I need to ask to approach the witness,” Butkiewicz said. “And the judge had me give $100 to charity and it didn’t go any further.”

As for why it’s coming up now?

“I have no idea. I’m not embarrassed by it. I thought I was doing my duty as an attorney.”

He couldn’t remember if the client was convicted.

The buzz isn’t limited to old rumors. Some people were upset that Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, and former Congressman Bill Thomas, made recorded calls stumping for candidate Matt Brady.

It does seem like heavy-handed politics in a non-partisan race.

But, like everything in Kern County, you have to remember the connections. Brady worked for Thomas in 2000 as counsel for the House Administration Committee, which Thomas chaired.

Brady was the GOP Central Committee chairman, vice chair and treasurer going back to 2000.

During his stint as treasurer, he was a central figure in a dust-up that resulted in the Kern Central Committee receiving a $10,000 fine from the California Fair Political Practices Committee.

The state party asked local chapters to take money from an insurance company and funnel it to three Republican assembly candidates in tight races in other parts of the state.

The Kern committee moved $150,000 and was dinged for contributing more than was allowed to two of the candidates.

Back in 2004 when the fines were announced, McCarthy, who admitted he was involved in the deal, chalked it up to not knowing the laws. More recently, he told me, Brady was just following what the committee directed him to do.

I asked Brady how that bodes for someone who is seeking a judgeship? Shouldn’t judges A) know the law and B) rely on their own, er, judgment?

Brady acknowledged his responsibility, saying he had relied on advice from the state party and the lesson has been invaluable, if painful. (The state party, by the way, actually took care of the fine, according to Brady.)

“When you’re in public service, you’re going to have bumps and bruises,” he said. “I got bruised on this one.”

Now, he demands more information and is more critical of it. He’s more thorough, he said. “I’m a better lawyer today because of what I went through.”

As for being part of the political “machine” of Mark Abernathy, campaign consultant for Thomas, McCarthy and now Brady, he said he’s just going with what works.

“Abernathy has a record of success in this community.”

Then, of course, there’s candidate Michael Gardina, who only recently emerged from under the cloud of a contempt of court inquiry for his actions during one of the most sensational murder trials in Bakersfield’s history.

At the end of the Vincent Brothers murder trial, Judge Michael Bush accused defense attorneys Gardina and Anthony Bryan of disobeying an order to share information with the prosecution. Earlier this month Judge John Oglesby threw out the complaint.

I hate to say the last two candidates, Public Defender Tony Heider and attorney Charles “Chip” Brehmer, are dull by comparison.

Come on, guys. Whatcha got? The clock is ticking!

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her  column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com