(Updated to reflect round by round voting; corrects that Standridge was tied for second in the second round of balloting)
A judicial screening panel on Monday recommended three women – a trailblazing Washington County judge, a state appeals court judge and a Wichita lawyer – to replace Justice Carol Beier on the Kansas Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court Nominating Commission recommended Appeals Court Judge Melissa Standridge, 12th District Judge Kim Cudney and Wichita lawyer Kristen Wheeler for a seat on the state Supreme Court. They were among 11 candidates seeking the position.
The names will now go to Gov. Laura Kelly who will pick one from among the three finalists. This will be Kelly’s third appointment to the Supreme Court.
Cudney, the chief judge for the 12th Judicial District, was the first female judge in that district’s history.
She led all three rounds of balloting Monday, first receiving support from all nine members of the nominating commission, followed by eight votes in each subsequent round.
Appointed to the bench in 2006 by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Cudney also served as Washington County attorney, first elected in 1996 and then reelected in 2000 and 2004.
Earlier in her career, she worked as a research attorney for the Kansas Supreme Court and as a law clerk for a federal judge.
She also joined a Kansas City law firm specializing in malpractice cases.
Cudney graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in political science and then earned her law degree at Washburn University.
Appeals Court Jude Melissa T. Standridge of Leawood may prove to be the more controversial of the three nominees.
An appeals court judge since 2008, Standridge has worked as counsel for Magistrate Judge David Waxse in the U.S. District Court of Kansas.
Before joining the law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon, Standridge worked for two years as chambers counsel for Judge Elmo Hunter with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
Last year, Standridge came up just short of making the list of three finalists recommended to the governor to replace Lee Johnson on the Supreme Court.
Kansans for Life has opposed Standridge’s candidacy because she sided with an appeals court ruling that found the right to an abortion was enshrined in the state constitution.
She has a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Kansas and a law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
Standridge tied for second with eight votes in the first round of voting. She tied for first with eight votes along with Cudney in the second round of voting.
She tied for second with Wheeler at six votes, but behind Cudney after three rounds.
Wheeler is a Wichita lawyer who works as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Thomas Marten.
She has worked with the Robinson Law Firm in Wichita, focusing on business advising and litigation, real estate advising and litigation, small-business representation, intellectual property protection, consumer protection, foreclosure defense, contracts and environmental law.
She also was of counsel to Morris, Laing, Evans, Brock & Kennedy. Wheeler has sought seats on the Kansas Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court.
She came up just a couple votes short of making the list of three candidates recommended to the governor to fill Lawton Nuss’ seat on the Supreme Court.
She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas in biodiversity, ecology and evolutionary biology and a law degree from Washburn University.
Here is how the complete voting went round by round. Ballots cast by each member of the nominating commission are generally not available for a couple of weeks.
Round 1
Kim Cudney: 9
Russell Keller: 8
Melissa Standridge: 8
Kristen Wheeler: 8
Cheryl Rios: 7
Dennis Depew: 4
Marcia Wood: 4
Randall Hodgkinson:0
Victor Braden: 0
Christi Bright:0
Meryl Carver-Allmond: 0
(Depew and Wood did not advance)
Round 2
Kim Cudney: 8
Melissa Standridge: 8
Russell Keller: 6
Kristen Wheeler: 6
Cheryl Rios: 3
(Rios did not advance)
Round 3
Kim Cudney: 8
Melissa Standridge: 6
Kristen Wheeler: 6
Russell Keller: 5
