Editor, Times-Union: This year three candidates (Torrey Bauer being amongst those) have thrown their name into the hat for judge of Superior Court 2 in the Republican primary. After doing a little homework, we’ve discovered not all candidates seem to be equally, or even closely, qualified. Superior courts are intended to hear and rule on a wide variety of cases (family, criminal, personal injury, estate, etc). Currently, most of the Superior Court 2 caseload is criminal law related. That should soon change, however, with the requirement that all county courts have a more balanced caseload. For this reason, it is crucial that whoever is elected to this seat is one who has had a varied and extensive practice involving both criminal and civil law matters. Ideally, it would also be one who is deeply invested in this community. We believe Torrey Bauer is the only candidate for Superior Court 2 who meets this criteria. He is the only candidate for Superior Court 2 that has experience as a public defender in Superior Court 2 (17 years) and who practices regularly within that court at the present time. If you’ve been out of your house at all in the past month, you can’t have missed the enormous support for Torrey as folks have planted campaign signs in front of their homes and businesses … we have three in our own yard. If you’ve followed the opinion pages of the Times-Union, you might have read a few letters from people who can attest to Torrey’s qualifications for this position. (Any person voting in the primary election should visit the “Experience Matters” page at www.bauerforjudge.com for a detailed comparison of the candidates.) What you might not know about, however, is the “behind the scenes” Torrey. Torrey first came to our community as a Grace College student, having just returned to the U.S. from the Philippines where his parents served on the mission field. He has made Warsaw his home for 32 years, along with his wife, Julie, and their two children, Keely and Kade. After graduating with honors from the IU School of Law, he began practicing law at Lavender & Bauer P.C. (now Bauer Law Office P.C.). In addition to his legal career, Torrey has invested himself in the lives of his neighbors here in Kosciusko County. He served for 16 years on the board of Heartline Pregnancy Center, and currently serves on the board of Kosciusko County Right to Life. He has taught law-related courses at Ivy Tech Community College, is a former board member of the City-County Athletic Complex, and since 1998, has been a volunteer assistant coach of the WCHS varsity men’s soccer team. When voting on May 6, please consider the importance of electing the candidate who not only has the legal experience across the entire spectrum of legal issues to effectively and efficiently run this vital county court (which the other candidates can not claim), also consider who has invested in the lives, while reflecting the values, of the people he wishes to serve. John and Florell Hand Warsaw, via email
