John Peck is a former justice of the peace in Ajo.

Arizona justice courts are often overlooked in general by the media and given scant attention at election time. But of the 1.47 million total cases filed last fiscal year (2023) in all Arizona courts, nearly half were filed in statewide justice courts, with more than 100,000 of them in the Pima County Consolidated Justice Court. The majority of people who have an Arizona court experience have that experience in our justice courts.

In this primary, Pima County voters have the chance to make a significant difference in the Pima County Consolidated Court. Two of the judges seeking re-election are among the finest in our state. A third candidate promises to be a tremendous addition to the bench.

I say that because I know so many judges around the state as a result of having been a longtime member and former president of the Arizona Association of Justices of the Peace, and serving on a number of Arizona Supreme Court committees, including the Arizona Judicial Council which sets court policy throughout the state.

Alexander Ball is unopposed in his effort to continue serving as justice of the peace for Precinct 6. He’s smart as a whip, centered, and principled and I’m delighted he will continue on the bench. 

Kendrick Wilson, seeking to retain his seat as justice of the peace in Precinct 9, is one of the most thoughtful judges I know. He is bright, compassionate, and refreshingly focused on his job as a professional rather than as a politician.

I energetically endorse Mike Buglewicz, a native Tucsonan who is challenging the incumbent in Precinct 4. I’ve had the opportunity to get to know him better during this campaign season and have found him to be honest, transparent, and open to questions. He brings a longtime law-enforcement background to the mix with a really acute sense of fairness. A large part of that 35-year background has to do with domestic-violence issues which are included in the misdemeanor docket in justice courts and are often part and parcel of protective-order filings.

I first came into contact with Mike Buglewicz when I was sitting in on now-retired Judge Jack Peyton’s Domestic Violence Court a decade ago. Judge Peyton created a court which dealt with victims, the accused, prosecutors and public defenders, health and social-service providers, representatives of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, probation officers.

It was a national model for problem-solving that was anything but cut-and-dried. Buglewicz was there and an active participant in those conversations. Domestic violence is a scourge and our Pima County Consolidated Court handles thousands of these and protective-order filings each year, almost 1,500 of the latter in 2023.

One of his key strengths is his broad and deep experience with domestic-violence in Pima County and his desire to re-energize that “specialty” court. Jack Peyton supports him and so do I – he has the experience, the integrity, the honesty, and the commitment to professionalism.