>> For the position of a district judge, a police officer,
and maybe I sound a little bit biased in this because that's what I did,
but a police officer brings all the tools to the position.
The learning curve for a police officer, such as myself, was on the civil end of it
but that's just a matter of you know going through the certification
and then continually keeping yourself up to date on the changes in the civil laws
but it really requires someone to have a lot of common sense and people skills.
But being a police officer, you end up with both of those or you should have the common sense
when it's, to me, that's something you just inherently have if you have.
[inaudible] your people skills and learning how to talk to people
and communicate you know the soft skills.
You are required to take a certification course which is offered through AOPC
which is the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.
The certification course has a 70% fail rate.
In other words, 7 out of 10 people that take the test or take the course
and then ultimately you have an exam at the end, fail.
That is required for you to hold the seat.
And the other preparation is just starting to talk to people and friends to say "Hey,
this is what I'm thinking of doing" so that you can get a large support group because I knocked
on about 1700 doors during my campaigning and I would have people show up at the polls
and they would say "I'm here because he was at my brother's house" "he was at my sister's"
or "my cousin's house" or "He stopped at my house" And that garnered such support
and those folks would then tell other people "Hey, this guy came by my house.
He spent 15 minutes at my house and talked to me" and it really seemed
to just connect everyone together.