In race of unknowns, they were the least unknown

Neither lawyer can explain how they mustered enough votes to get into the Dec. 2 runoff. It was, after all, a race in which few voters recognized any of the seven judicial candidates.

Sara Doyle and Mike Sheffield apparently were less unknown than the five others on the ballot for a seat on the Georgia Court of Appeals.

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SARA DOYLE

• Age: 40
• Home: Inman Park
• Personal: Husband, Atlanta lawyer Jay Doyle, and one-year-old daughter, Mary Donovan
• College: University of Florida
• Law school: Mercer University
• Professional: Partner at the law firm, Holland & Knight

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MIKE SHEFFIELD

• Age: 59
• Home: Peachtree Corners
• Personal: Wife, Susan, a Delta flight attendant, and two children, Olivia, 14, and Matthew, 12
• College: Wake Forest University
• Law school: Emory University
• Professional: Sole practitioner in Lawrenceville

Political Insider:

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ELECTION UPDATES:

• Chambliss re-elected to U.S. Senate | Results
• Republican McDonald regains PSC seat | Results
• Doyle wins race for Appeals Court judge | Results
• Deputy, former educator take Clayton school seats | Results
• Ex-prosecutor picked for DeKalb Superior Court | Results
• Adams wins Fulton Superior Court judgeship | Results
• Single vote decides one Norcross City Council race | Results

Dec. 2 runoff voting:

Local and state results U.S. Senate Georgia Public Service Commission Georgia Court of Appeals Carroll County Clayton County DeKalb County Douglas County Fulton County Gwinnett County

Photos:
• Chambliss, Martin in Atlanta | Voters

Nov. 4 voting:

Local and state results U.S. President U.S. Senate U.S. House Georgia Public Service Commission Georgia State Senate Georgia State House Georgia Constitutional Amendments Georgia Supreme Court Georgia Court of Appeals Carroll County Cherokee County Clayton County Cobb County Coweta County DeKalb County Douglas County Fayette County Forsyth County Fulton County Gwinnett County Henry County Rockdale County

In the Nov. 4 election, Doyle, a partner at the law firm Holland & Knight, led the crowded field with 22.5 percent of the vote. Sheffield, a Lawrenceville criminal defense attorney, finished close behind with 20.9 percent.

“With seven people running, no one knew how it would go,” Sheffield said.

The judgeship is one of three statewide races — along with U.S. Senate and Public Service Commission contests — to be decided in the upcoming runoff. The winner will succeed Judge John H. Ruffin Jr., who is retiring.

Both Doyle and Sheffield blanketed the metro area with yard signs. Doyle bought some radio ads; Sheffield targeted suburban Republicans with automated phone calls. Still, neither candidate raised enough money to blitz the state with advertising.

Yet voters were attracted to Doyle and Sheffield — or their names — in strikingly similar fashion. In 105 of Georgia’s 159 counties, Doyle and Sheffield finished first or second in the seven-candidate field, often separated by only dozens of votes.

“I’m just so glad to be in this position,” Doyle said. “We all knew a runoff would be necessary.”

Doyle, 40, has specialized in education law and in defending employers and businesses in litigation. She says she would bring a unique legal expertise to the busy 12-member appeals court, which sits one rung below the Georgia Supreme Court.

“I’ve worked at a large law firm, handling the complex cases, and that experience sets me apart from a sole practitioner,” she said. Her legal work has included representing private colleges and universities, negotiating land disputes, representing developers, litigating securities and tax cases and handling appeals.

A former prosecutor and public defender, Sheffield, 59, is past president of the DeKalb and Gwinnett county bar associations. He said he tried more than 300 cases before a jury and handled 65 appeals.

“I’ve been practicing for 34 years,” he said. “I feel like I’ve got a lot more experience in the courtroom and doing appeals, and that’s what this job is all about.”

Even though the judicial race is non-partisan, Sheffield often mentions he is a Republican. In e-mails to supporters, his campaign said Sheffield “upholds traditional Georgia values, including our law maintaining marriage only between a man and woman.”

Sheffield said he and his wife, Susan, are actively involved in Georgia Right to Life, which has endorsed his candidacy. Sheffield also answered Georgia Right to Life and the Georgia Christian Alliance questionnaires of the judicial candidates.

“The voters deserve to know more about the candidates, other than they will be fair and impartial,” he said.

Doyle, who has the endorsements of a number of high-profile Republican attorneys, declined to answer the questionnaires.

“I’m approaching this as a non-partisan race,” she said. “The judicial system was set up to be independent, so anybody who runs for a judicial position in anything other than a non-partisan way, I think, does a disservice to the job and to the process.”

Sheffield’s campaign seeks to portray the race as conservative versus liberal.

“There’s an ideological component to this race,” said Phil Kent, a conservative political consultant and long-time friend of Sheffield’s. “Mike Sheffield is a constitutional conservative. Sara Doyle is more in the Democrat-liberal mold.”

Doyle was recently hosted at a Buckhead fund-raiser by some of the lions of the state’s plaintiffs bar, including trial lawyers Tommy Malone and Jim Butler. But she also has the support of a number of leading Republican attorneys.

Robert Highsmith, a Holland & Knight partner and former counsel to Gov. Sonny Perdue, said Doyle has “support across the ideological spectrum.”

In a recent e-mail, Highsmith was joined by lawyers — and GOP stalwarts — Anne Lewis, Frank Strickland and Mike Bowers endorsing Doyle’s candidacy.

“In these difficult times for families and for conservative principles, it has never been more important that we elect the right judges,” the attorneys said. “[Doyle] has pledged that Georgia’s families will the be foundation of every decision she makes on the Court of Appeals, that every life is protected and that justice is served.”

Doyle is running her first judicial campaign. Sheffield has been here before.

Four years ago, in a race for another open Court of Appeals seat, Sheffield got into a runoff after a recount showed he finished second by 382 vote-margin over Howard Mead. But when Mead discovered his first name was incorrectly listed as “Thomas” on 481 ballots in Laurens County, he filed suit. By a 4-3 decision, the state Supreme Court ordered a new election be held.

This time, after spending millions of dollars of his own money on ads, Mead, not Sheffield, got into the runoff, eventually won by Debra Bernes.