Superior Court Judge, Office 87 — David DeJute vs. Anthony (A.J.) Bayne
Current as of · voting-clarity.org
November 3, 2026 County of Los Angeles ballot. AI-generated analysis. Your sample ballot and official voter guide are the official documents; the links below let you check each claim. This page explains what is on the ballot; it is not legal advice.
Voting Clarity's research is done by Claude, an AI made by Anthropic. Anthropic gave no money to either candidate in this race [28].
Summary
Office 87 has no incumbent on the ballot. Judge Leslie E. Brown won the seat unopposed in 2020.[1] For 2026 the county extended the filing period for Office 87,[2] which state law allows when the sitting judge does not file to run.[3] David DeJute is a law professor and attorney in private practice and a former federal prosecutor. Anthony (A.J.) Bayne is a Los Angeles County deputy public defender.[4] In the June 2 primary, Bayne got 42.0% and DeJute 31.3%, so the top two meet again in November.[5]
Your Vote:
Vote for one. Judicial races are nonpartisan; no party appears on the ballot.[6] Superior Court judges hear criminal, civil, family, juvenile, probate and other cases[4] for a six-year term.[7] Candidates are listed here in ballot order, which follows the Secretary of State's random alphabet drawing (D before B).[8][9]
The candidates at a glance
| Question | David DeJute | Anthony (A.J.) Bayne |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Background | Adjunct law professor, law firm of counsel, former federal prosecutor; licensed since 1991 | Public defender; licensed since 1994 |
| 2. Bar rating | Qualified | Well Qualified |
| 3. Discipline record | None listed | None listed |
| 4. Endorsements | County Democratic Party, Democratic clubs, elected officials, six judges, carpenters union | Public Defender, about 34 judicial officers, police unions, former DA Cooley, deputy DAs and public defenders, newspapers |
| 5. Money | $2,000 loan from himself (2025, e-filed reports) | Two 2026 campaign statements filed; no itemized transactions found in e-filed search |
| 6. Ballot designation | Law Professor/Attorney | Deputy Public Defender, County of Los Angeles |
| 7. Why the seat is open | No incumbent filed | Same |
| 8. Track record | No named cases found | No named cases found |
| 9. Past runs and ratings | None found. | None found. |
| 10. Court sanctions | None found. | None found. |
| 11. Connected endorsements | Third-place primary finisher Sharee Sanders Gordon | A judge listed by the campaign as a former judge of Office 87 |
| 12. Primary result | 31.3% | 42.0% |
| 13. Criminal charges | None found. | None found. |
Key Questions Answered
David DeJute
Background: Adjunct professor and director of the Disaster Relief Clinic at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, and of counsel to the law firm Michelman Robinson. He clerked for a federal trial judge, was Vice President of Litigation at Sony Pictures, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney represented federal agencies and officers, including President Obama.[10][4] Admitted to the State Bar June 21, 1991 (about 35 years).[11]
Bar rating: Qualified. The report lists only one non-participant in all races, a candidate in Office 64, so DeJute took part.[12]
Discipline record: None. His profile shows active status and no discipline or administrative actions.[11]
Endorsements: The Los Angeles County Democratic Party, the Stonewall Democratic Club and about ten other Democratic clubs, the Western States Carpenters, HONORPAC and the LA Sentinel (shown by logo); Judges David Berger, Brian Gasdia, Steve Morgan, James Steele, David Walgren and James Hahn; Rep. Ted Lieu, Treasurer Fiona Ma, State Sen. Ben Allen, Assessor Jeffrey Prang and Rick Caruso; and several law-firm leaders, including the chair and managing partner of Michelman Robinson (campaign list).[13] Endorsements cluster among Democratic Party groups, elected officials and private-practice lawyers.
Money: The county's e-filed records for “David A. DeJute for Judge 2026” show two campaign statements covering 2025 and one itemized transaction: a $2,000 loan from DeJute on June 27, 2025. No 2026 campaign statements appear among the e-filings.[14][15]
Ballot designation: “Law Professor/Attorney.”[16] Pepperdine lists him as an adjunct professor of law,[10] and his State Bar address is the Michelman & Robinson law firm.[11] No designation challenge was found.
Why the seat is open: No incumbent filed (see Summary). Why the sitting judge did not file could not be verified from available sources.
Track record: Cases reported in the news are not a representative sample of a candidate's work. No news story or court record naming a case he handled was found. Pepperdine's page says he tried more than a dozen cases as a federal prosecutor and four in private practice.[10]
Win/conviction record: An individual conviction rate (or case-outcome record) is not published and could not be verified from available sources.
Past runs and ratings: None found.
Court sanctions: None found.
Endorsements with a connection: Sharee Sanders Gordon, who finished third in the Office 87 primary, endorses him.[13]
Primary result: 31.3% (516,631 votes), second of three.[5] The county's results site confirms he advanced but does not display vote counts.[17]
Criminal charges: None found.
Anthony (A.J.) Bayne
Background: Deputy public defender for about 26 years, more than 19 of them in Compton; he now handles serious felony cases in Torrance and reports more than 100 jury trials to verdict, including murder, special-circumstances and three-strikes cases.[4] His campaign says he has developed AI-assisted tools for attorney workflows.[18] Admitted to the State Bar Dec. 1, 1994 (about 32 years).[19]
Bar rating: Well Qualified, the only Well Qualified rating in this race. He is not listed as a non-participant, so he took part.[12]
Discipline record: None. His profile shows active status and no discipline or administrative actions.[19]
Endorsements: Public Defender Ricardo D. García; 32 judges and two commissioners, including Judges Joan Chrostek, Pat Connolly and Lynn Olson; the LA Police Protective League, PORAC, the LA Port Police Association and the West Covina Police Officers' Association; former District Attorney Steve Cooley; the Mexican American Bar Association; more than 50 attorneys, mostly deputy district attorneys and deputy public defenders; and, per the campaign, the Southern California News Group editorial board, La Opinión, Our Weekly, the Metropolitan News-Enterprise and others (campaign list).[20] Endorsements come from both prosecution and defense lawyers, and from law-enforcement groups.
Money: The county's e-filed records for “Elect Bayne for Judge 2026” show two campaign statements covering Jan. 1 to May 16, 2026. The county's transaction search returns no itemized transactions for the committee.[21][22]
Ballot designation: “Deputy Public Defender, County of Los Angeles.”[16] It matches his State Bar address, the Office of the Public Defender.[19] No designation challenge was found.
Why the seat is open: Same as above (see Summary).
Track record: Cases reported in the news are not a representative sample of a candidate's work. No news story or court record naming a case he handled was found.
Win/conviction record: An individual conviction rate (or case-outcome record) is not published and could not be verified from available sources.
Past runs and ratings: None found.
Court sanctions: None found.
Endorsements with a connection: His judge list includes Holly J. Fujie, described by the campaign as “Former Judge, Office 87.”[20] County records show Leslie E. Brown, not Fujie, as the Office 87 judge elected in 2020;[1] when Fujie held the seat could not be verified from available sources.
Primary result: 42.0% (694,004 votes), first of three, 10.7 points ahead of DeJute; Sharee Sanders Gordon got 26.7%.[5] The county's results site confirms he advanced.[17]
Criminal charges: None found.
Sources
Our Weekly, Oct. 7, 2026 (secondary)
Santa Monica Daily Press, June 2 primary results (secondary)
Secretary of State, random alphabet drawing, Aug. 13, 2026
State Bar profile, DeJute #153527, checked Oct. 14, 2026
LACBA Judicial Elections Evaluation Committee, 2026 Final Report, April 22, 2026
DeJute campaign endorsements (self-reported)
LA County Registrar, June 2, 2026 results (past county results 2013–2024 searched for both names)
Bayne campaign bio (self-reported)
State Bar profile, Bayne #172129, checked Oct. 14, 2026
Bayne campaign endorsements (self-reported)
NetFile campaign finance (not cited above)
DeJute campaign site (self-reported) (not cited above)
Bayne campaign site (self-reported) (not cited above)
Criminal-charges search: press releases of the U.S. Department of Justice (justice.gov), the Los Angeles County District Attorney and the California Attorney General, searched for both candidates (not cited above)
LAist 2026 (secondary) (not cited above)
Los Angeles County campaign finance records (NetFile), searched for "Anthropic" Oct. 16, 2026, https://public.netfile.com/pub2/?AID=LAC; and Cal-Access, Anthropic PBC (filer 1491817), https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1491817, as of Oct. 16, 2026.
Reviewed in the original: LACBA 2026 report (full); both State Bar profiles; Registrar candidate lists, extension list and results data; NetFile filings and transactions; statutes and constitution sections; Pepperdine faculty page; campaign home, bio and endorsement pages; Our Weekly and LAist articles.
Could not be reviewed:
Vote counts on the county results site: not displayed, so percentages come from the Santa Monica Daily Press.
Contents of the filed campaign statements (Form 460 totals): available only as file downloads, not opened; paper filings are not online.
Court records of sanctions or criminal cases: court indexes are paid or in person; federal court files (PACER) were not searched.
Newspaper endorsement editorials: not reviewed.