An area judge who’s in the running for the Missouri Supreme Court mailed a questionnaire to Gov. Matt Blunt the same week a group of critics asked the governor to reject him.

The coalition, Better Courts for Missouri, long has lobbied for a new version of Missouri’s non-partisan court plan — a process for selecting Supreme Court judges that a St. Joseph senator tried to shed some light on this year to no avail.

The organization recently sent a letter to Mr. Blunt, asking him to overlook all three of the judicial nominees, including Atchison County Associate Circuit Court Judge Zel Fischer, of Rock Port, Mo.

Executive Director James Harris criticized the Appellate Judicial Commission for nominating Mr. Fischer, specifically because of his lack of time behind the bench and his former membership on the board of governors of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys.

Mr. Harris contended the association’s board has taken stances against tort reform and worker’s compensation reform, which creates a bias.

“They have an agenda,” Mr. Harris said.

Mr. Fischer said he was unavailable for comment this week, but sent a fax to the News-Press, referring to letters of recommendation in response to the objections from Better Courts for Missouri.

Mr. Fischer, a Republican, was elected as judge in 2006. He clerked in 1988 for Laura Denvir Stith, now the Supreme Court’s chief justice. A year later he went into private practice with an attorney in Platte County and then in 1992 he started his own practice in Rock Port.

Mr. Fischer was elected onto the roughly 80-member board of governors in 2001 for a two-year term.

“I think it’s a testament that person was well-thought of and selected by their peers,” said board president Lynn Henry.

A critic of the judicial selection process, Sen. Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, defended Mr. Fischer as the candidate he hopes Mr. Blunt selects in October to replace the vacancy left by Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr.

“He’d certainly be in my mind highly qualified,” Mr. Shields said. “... I don’t list the (Missouri Trial Attorneys Association) as one of my favorites, but he was a lawyer in a smaller community. Now he’s a judge, so he probably takes all kind of cases.”

Mr. Shields, majority floor leader, about a year ago held a first-time Senate hearing with the chief justice to discuss possible ways to make the selection process more open.

His proposal to move the Appellate Judicial Commission under the Missouri Sunshine Law and to make it publish a list of all Supreme Court applicants — not just the three ultimately nominated — died in committee this spring.

The court in the past year has changed its rules so that the it will release demographics of all applicants, but it won’t release the list to the public, and now it posts commission meeting details, but they’re still closed to the public.

“I think they’ve made steps, but they haven’t gone as far as I’d like,” he said. “I guess you can stare at a closed door.”

Alyson E. Raletz can be reached

at alysonraletz@npgco.com.