This came over the transom today from the Pete Pierce For Superior Court Judge campaign:

Pierce Mobilized: Suspends 2008 Judicial Race

Senior Deputy District Attorney Peter W. Pierce, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves and the leading candidate to replace retiring Judge James gray in the June 2008 election, suspended his campaign today as he will be mobilized for a 400-day active duty tour -- to include deployment overseas/in-theatre -- in support of the Global War on Terror.

" I appreciate the support I received from so many in the political, judicial, law enforcement and legal community, especially the growing list of those who stepped forward and endorsed me. My special and heart-flet thanks go out to Congressman Ed Royce, Supervisors John Moorlach and Pat Bates, State Senator Tom Harman and Assemblymembers Chuck DeVore, Mike DuVall, Todd Spitzer and Mimi Walters for their unwavering support."

You can read the rest of the press release here.

That leaves two candidates in the race for this Superior Court seat (now held by retiring Judge James Gray): Deputy D.A. Mike Flory and Westminster Councilman Kermit Marsh.

"Deputy District Attorney" is worth its weight in gold as a ballot title. The irony is the candidate with that title is such a a poor Deputy D.A. that his career is stalled and he's no longer allowed to try criminal cases.

Marsh has been elected by the voters -- albeit just those of Westminster -- twice before, so there are at least some OC voters who know him and have cast votes for him.

It's a county-wide vote, meaning communicating with the several hundred thousand hi-propensity voters, let alone all 1.3 million registered voters, is hugely expensive. Thanks to TIN CUP limits, it's extremely difficult for a non-incumbent to raise the do-re-mi necessary to communicate with voters.

Marsh does have several advantages: he'll be able to harvest a boatload of endorsements, and I'll wager District Attorney Tony Rackauckas will be among them. Kermit will get the OC GOP endorsement against Democrat Flory. And Kermit has demonstrated a willingness to sink a chunk of his personal wealth into a race. If he can lock up the slates and put together enough scratch to mail a "Tony Rackauckas endorses Kermit Marsh" mailer to permanent absentee voters, I think Kermit will win the seat.

UPDATE (1/27): Pete Pierce's consultant, Brett Barbre, corrected me regarding contribution limits. Since Superior Court is a state office, TIN CUP doesn't apply.

UPDATE (1/28): I see in Frank Mickadeit's column that civil attorney K.C. Jones is also running for this seat. I think Frank had reported this already, an it slipped my mind.

In any case, two civil attorneys versus one DDA helps the DDA. How much depends on how actively Jones campaigns, i.e. the extent to which he can communicate with voters. Marsh still has the asset of having twice topped the ballot in Westminster and twice been on the 1st District supervisor ballot, all of which should help him capture voters who might otherwise skip judicial races because they don't know who any of the candidates are. That's likely not enough to be determinative on its own, but every bit helps.