A heated judicial race in Miami-Dade County pits an incumbent judge against a challenger who claimed to have found dirt on the incumbent.

Still, observers, like Juan-Carlos Planas, an election law professor at St. Thomas University School of Law and private practice attorney, said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Lody Jean has little to fear from her opponent, Teressa Maria Cervera, in a race that showed the sometimes bare-knuckle battle for incumbents in state judicial elections.

Juan-Carlos Planas. Juan-Carlos Planas.