On June 6, Lieutenant Gov. Kim Guadagno was chosen as the Republican candidate for governor. Her husband had just completed his last term as a Superior Court judge assigned to the Appellate Division. One hardly noticed that, slightly more than 40 years ago, the spouse of a judge could not run for political office, or even make a political contribution, because the Supreme Court had so directed in order to place the judiciary and the image of the judiciary “for the sake of judicial integrity and the public appearance thereof,” to be “wholly divorced from involvement in partisan or other political activity.”
In December 1973, Ellen Gaulkin—wife of Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Gaulkin, a mother and concerned citizen—wanted to run for a position on the Weehawken Board of Education. She petitioned the Supreme Court for permission, but the court rejected her request because it represented “a form of political activity which would, unintentionally but seriously, affect public confidence in the judicial system.”
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