Beaumont Battle

There’s a fine line between being competitive and being petty. And in the race for Fayetteville District Court Judge, it looks like the line’s been crossed.

To get you up to speed, longtime Washington County Circuit Judge Bill Storey is running against Fayetteville attorney Tim Snively to replace deceased former city judge Rudy Moore Jr. The election is May 20 with the winner taking office in January.

According to a well-placed source who spoke to Whispers, someone took exception to a photo on Facebook showing Washington County Circuit Judge Cristi Beaumont standing next to Snively while wearing a pro-Snively campaign button. For those who don’t know, Beaumont and Snively are married with two children.

We all know that sitting judges aren’t supposed to campaign for other candidates, so here it is: Tsk, tsk, Judge Beaumont.

In a case like this, however, it seems like a discreet reminder to the Beaumont-Snively camp would have sufficed. Instead, someone took the extreme step of anonymously reporting Beaumont to the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, the state board that oversees ethics and conduct for the state’s judges.

And indeed, the state took a look at the case and wisely decided that “this complaint did not reveal or find any evidence of judicial misconduct, wrongdoing, or incapacity within the commission’s jurisdiction,” according to the Jan. 9 dismissal letter.

Whispers has one question for the anonymous complainer: Did it really have to go that far?