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Kimberly S. Dowling (Delaware County Circuit Court Seat 2, Indiana, candidate 2024)
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Kimberly S. Dowling (Democratic Party) ran for election for judge of the Delaware County Circuit Court Seat 2. She was on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024.[source]
Dowling completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Kimberly S. Dowling provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on October 22, 2024:
- Birth date: November 27, 1959
- Birth place: Decatur, Illinois
- High school: Pomona HS
- Bachelor's: University of Denver, 1981
- J.D.: Univ of Colorado, 1984
- Gender: Female
- Religion: Christian: Methodist
- Profession: Judge
- Incumbent officeholder: Yes
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Elections
General election
General election for Delaware County Circuit Court Seat 2
Kimberly S. Dowling and Andrew J. Ramirez ran in the general election for Delaware County Circuit Court Seat 2 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | ||
Kimberly S. Dowling (D)  | ||
| Andrew J. Ramirez (R) | ||
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Delaware County Circuit Court Seat 2
Kimberly S. Dowling ran in the Democratic primary for Delaware County Circuit Court Seat 2 on May 7, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| Kimberly S. Dowling | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Dowling in this election.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Kimberly S. Dowling completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Dowling's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Prior to taking the bench, I practiced law in Delaware County for 27 years. I am married to my husband Ralph and we have been married for 41 years. We have two children, Carrie and Sean. Our son Sean is married to Erica and they have one child. Since becoming a judge, I have been appointed by the Indiana Supreme Court to several state judicial committees, and I currently serve as vice president of the Indiana council of juvenile and family court judges and I am on the board of directors for the Indiana judges association. I volunteer in my community in several ways. I am a Rotarian, and have been for the past 13 years. I am a member of the Whitely community council, I am a member of the Commonway Church and volunteer in my community through my church. I am also a member of the national Association of women judges. I am a 2016 graduate of the Indiana graduate program for judges. I served as president of the Muncie, Delaware County bar Association in 2009–2010. I served my community by volunteering many hours of pro bono legal service, I helped to organize the local pro bono organization for Muncie, Delaware County, and ultimately served as share of the pro bono committee through the Indiana Supreme Court, and was part of the organization to organize the coalition for court, a statewide pro bono organization.
- I have spent the last 10 years of my judicial term, addressing statewide human trafficking issues. I have worked with the state police and FBI to conduct trainings, I have worked with our state legislature to improve laws in Indiana related to human trafficking. I have become the state judicial expert on this topic, and I have traveled the state to conduct trainings for all those who work in the juvenile justice system, but also those who serve in our healthcare industry. The Indiana Supreme Court has named me as chair of a committee to address human trafficking with our children through the Indiana commission to improve the status of children.
- I am committed to improving the efficiency of our civil system in Indiana. I was part of the civil litigation task force, appointed by the Indiana Supreme Court several years ago, and was ultimately named one of seven judges in the state to run a pilot project to continue that work and improve the efficiency of the civil system. my goal is to complete that pilot in May 2025, evaluate the data, and roll the program out statewide.
- I have been named one of three judges in the state of Indiana to run a pilot project to become more trauma informed. We are applying this pilot to our Juvenile Court, so that all children are treated with dignity and respect and so that we do not further traumatize youth coming through our court. I am also working on the pilot to apply the principles to our family law cases. We are working with a group of professors from Northwestern University to evaluate our training and practices. And then we will be working with a professor from Ball State University to help us develop our solutions to, the issues that we identify
Judges are not able to express opinions about issues of public policy because once those are addressed by local executive boards or the state legislature lawsuits may be filed which we would then have to rule on. I am however, passionate about the issue of human trafficking and addressing anti-trafficking protocols in the state.
I believe honesty and integrity are the most important principles for an elected official. I took an oath to support the constitutions of the state of Indiana and the United States and I work every day to fulfill the oath that I took.
It is imperative that the person seeking this office have the experience and knowledge to represent all it against coming before the judge. I had 27 years experience practicing general law in Delaware county Indiana before I took the bench. My docket is 83% civil and 17% criminal, and it is therefore crucial that this person have extensive knowledge and experience in the area of civil law. The bulk of my practice when I was an attorney involved, extensive civil litigation, and I also served as a deputy prosecutor under Ray Brassart. When I became the judge of Delaware Circuit 2, there were over 3000 pending cases and as I evaluated those cases I found that many of them needed to be disposed of or dismissed. My staff and I worked for one year to reduce that docket to just over 1000 pending cases. We have maintained that approximate caseload since the end of my first year. I have also become the state expert in addressing the needs of self represented let against. Indiana has a very high rate of lit against who either choose or must represent themselves in court. We are no different than any other state in the nation and this presents challenges for trial court judges. I was the first in the state to develop a self help Center in our courthouse and many other counties in the state have followed suit. It is imperative that the judge of this court understand the challenges and needs of those self represented against and possess the skills to address their needs.
The legacy that I would like to leave is addressing anti-trafficking in Indiana. We have so many children that are being trafficked each year, and just to be able to help address the laws in the state and train as many people as possible so that they’re aware of the red flags is very important to me and it became a huge passion for me
I was nine years old when the first man walked on the moon. I remember my dad calling us into the living room to watch the event on television. He told me it was a very important historical event, and it has stuck with me. It was such an awesome thing to watch.
A judge should be a leader in the community by not only volunteering and serving the constituents, but also by serving on the state level. Judges can be leaders by taking on projects in the community and helping the community to be a better place to live. I have worked with several organizations to take on projects. I have addressed to human trafficking on a local level and I train regularly to service organizations, church groups, and others who are interested in the topic. I’ve also worked with a group of local organizations to develop the monthly youth alliance to help prevent juveniles from entering the juvenile justice system. We’ve just recently received a grant of $360,000 to develop a program similar to credible messenger, which began in Baltimore Maryland.
Empathy is an important quality for a judge to possess, but it must be balanced with understanding and applying the law
I am running for reelection to this position because I have enjoyed greatly the work that I’ve done over the past 12 years and I would like to continue that for another six year term. I have been appointed by the Indiana Supreme Court to run the pilot project to improve the efficiency of the civil system, and I would like to continue that pilot for the next six months, help collect the data, and then help to roll that plan out through the state. I would also like to continue the work that I do, addressing anti-trafficking efforts. I would like to continue as chair of the commercial sexual exploitation of children committee through the Indiana commission on children to continue to work with our legislature to improve Indiana’s laws. And I would also like to continue to work on our pilot project to become more trauma informed. That is also a project that we would like to roll out statewide.
I have been endorsed by Team Democrat PAC, Muncie Resists, UAW Cap Council Region 2B, retired Judges Richard Dailey and Linda Ralu Wolf, Mike and Nicole Lunsford, Wil and Cindy Davis, Lynn Witty MD, Linda and Wayne Gray MD, Marianne Lafferty Vorhees
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
