Kenneth Lasker doesn’t appear to have violated any laws or guidelines over the summer and fall when he politicked for Michael Sullivan and Sherrie Bjork for Chautauqua County Family Court while serving at the same time on the Eighth Judicial District’s Judicial Qualifications Commission.

Lasker recused himself during discussion of Michael Sullivan and Sally Jaroszynski, Chautauqua County’s candidates for Family Court judge because he had knowledge of both candidates. Mary Gehl Doyle, commission director, confirmed Lasker’s recusal and said he did forward information about the race to a commission subcommittee for review. Nothing Lasker did as part of the commission’s official work should have had a bearing on Jaroszynski’s eventual rating of not qualified.

It is obvious, from Facebook messages, voicemails and texts reviewed last week that Lasker was working against Jaroszynski in Chautauqua County. It is his right as a private citizen to do just that. Information uncovered by The Post-Journal last week does call into question what the commission’s bylaws mean when they say “no member of a qualifications commission shall be a candidate for judicial office or shall support or act on behalf of any candidate for judicial office.”

Lasker’s efforts to keep Jaroszynski from receiving the Democratic Party line on the ballot and then his very public statements against Jaroszynski ended up fueling Jaroszynski’s claims that the commission’s rankings were tainted. That is a shame because many voters aren’t lawyers. As such, they rely on the commission’s rankings to be truly independent to make an informed decision on candidates for judgeships.

Creating any grounds in which the commission’s work can be called into question ended up doing the rating process a disservice. The commission should have much tougher guidelines about what its members can and can’t do and say by the time we have another round of judicial elections.