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Daniel Winfree
Daniel Winfree was a judge of the Alaska Supreme Court. He assumed office on November 16, 2007. He left office on February 6, 2023.
Winfree was elected by his peers to succeed Joel Bolger as chief justice of the court. His term as chief began on July 1, 2021.[1]
Winfree first became a member of the court by appointment. Gov. Sarah Palin (R) appointed him to succeed former Justice Alexander Bryner.[2] Winfree won a retention election in 2012. To read more about judicial selection in Alaska, click here. He left office after reaching the mandatory retirement age in 2023.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[3] Winfree received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Winfree was born in Fairbanks, Alaska.[5] Winfree earned his undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Oregon in 1977. In 1981, he earned his master's degree and J.D. from the University of California - Berkeley.[6]
Before his legal career, Winfree held several jobs, including bus driver, warehouse worker, and pipeline worker. Following his admission to the bar, Winfree spent 25 years in private practice. He started Winfree Law Office in 1996. Winfree also worked as general counsel and executive director of the Greater Fairbanks Community Hospital Foundation. He served as president of the Alaska Bar Association's board of governors and of the Western States Bar Conference.[6]
Elections
2023
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy (R) appointed Jude Pate to the Alaska Supreme Court on January 20, 2023. Pate succeeded Justice Daniel Winfree, who retired on February 6, 2023. Pate was Gov. Dunleavy's third nominee to the five-member court.[7]
At the time of the vacancy under Alaska law, the governor appointed a justice from a pool of names provided by the nominating commission. After occupying the seat for at least three years, the appointee would run in a yes-no retention election and, if retained, would serve a subsequent term of ten years.[8]
2022
- See also: Alaska Supreme Court elections, 2022
Daniel Winfree did not file to run for retention after he was set to reach the mandatory retirement age in 2023.[9]
2012
- See also: Alaska judicial elections, 2012
Winfree was retained to the supreme court with 64.93 percent of the vote in the general election on November 6th.[10]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[11]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[12]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Daniel
Winfree
Alaska
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
Partisan Profile
Details:
Winfree was appointed by Gov. Sarah Palin (R). He donated $750 to Republican candidates and organizations.
State supreme court judicial selection in Alaska
- See also: Judicial selection in Alaska
The five justices on the Alaska Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointed method. Each justice is appointed from a list of two or more nominees compiled by the Alaska Judicial Council.[13]
The initial term of a new justice is at least three years, after which the justice stands for retention in an uncontested yes-no election. Subsequent terms last ten years.[14] For more information on these elections, visit the Alaska judicial elections page.
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice must be:
- a U.S. citizen;
- a state resident for at least five years;
- licensed to practice law in the state;
- active in law practice for at least eight years; and
- under the age of 70.[15][16]
Chief justice
The chief justice is chosen by a vote of the other supreme court justices and serves a three-year term.[17]
Vacancies
The process of filling interim judicial vacancies is identical to that of filling ones that would occur at the end of a justice's term. The governor appoints a justice from a pool of names provided by the nominating commission. After occupying the seat for at least three years, the appointee runs in an uncontested yes-no retention election and, if retained, will serve a subsequent term of ten years.[18][19]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Alaska News Source, "First Alaska-born chief justice selected by members of the Alaska Supreme Court," May 7, 2021
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "Current Judges," accessed March 8. 2021
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ Vote Smart, "Daniel Winfree's Biography," accessed June 11, 2021
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Alaska Judicial Council, "Application for Judicial Appointment," June 25, 2007
- ↑ Alaska Public Media, "Dunleavy picks Sitka judge for Supreme Court, first justice in decades from small-town Alaska," January 23, 2023
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Alaska," accessed October 2, 2014
- ↑ Alaska Public Media, "Retiring from the high court, Alaska’s chief justice defends its system of selecting judges," February 2, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Division of Elections, "Official 2012 General Election results," accessed June 11, 2021
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "Selection Law - Constitutional and Statutory Provisions Concerning Judicial Selection: Alaska Constitution Article IV, Section 5. Nomination and Appointment," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "Constitutional and Statutory Provisions Concerning Judicial Retention/Evaluation: AS 15.35.030. Approval or rejection of supreme court justice," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "AS 22.05.070. Qualifications of justices," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "AS 22.25.010. Retirement of Justices and Judges," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Court System, "Court System Information," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "Constitutional and Statutory Provisions Concerning Judicial Retention/Evaluation: AS 15.35.030. Approval or rejection of supreme court justice," accessed March 23, 2023
- ↑ Alaska Judicial Council, "Selection Law - Constitutional and Statutory Provisions Concerning Judicial Selection: Alaska Constitution Article IV, Section 5. Nomination and Appointment," accessed March 23, 2023
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Alaska • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Alaska
State courts:
Alaska Supreme Court • Alaska Court of Appeals • Alaska Superior Court • Alaska District Court
State resources:
Courts in Alaska • Alaska judicial elections • Judicial selection in Alaska
