A judge who is not currently running for election or retention may not attend a victory/watch party for the judge’s spouse who is running for a partisan position as a school superintendent, according to the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee.

The judge’s spouse anticipates scheduling what is known as a “watch party,” likely in a local hotel ballroom. The event would be attended by supporters of the judge’s spouse’s campaign and the judge predicts that most in attendance will be members of the spouse’s political party.

“[W]e must reluctantly advise against the judge’s attendance at this gathering,” the committee wrote in Opinion No. 2024-11, released August 2. “Not because the judge’s unannounced attendance is a ‘public endorsement’ of the judge’s spouse (and whose support most reasonable people would simply assume). Rather, a watch party for a partisan office would appear to be a ‘political function’ generally prohibited under Canon 7A(1)(d), and attending such a watch party, even at the conclusion of a contested, partisan election, would likely constitute ‘political activity’ proscribed under Canon 7D.”