# Judge of the Superior Court, Office No. 10 — Riverside County Compare records and positions simply between Michelle Paradise and 1 more for Judge of the Superior Court, Office No. 10 — Riverside County at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. A countywide seat on the Riverside County Superior Court, the state trial court (6-year term). - Jurisdiction: Riverside County - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/riverside-judge-office-10 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 24, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 82 out of 100 (Strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Michelle Paradise** - **Andrea Garcia** A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Michelle Paradise led the June 2 primary with 44.0% and Andrea Garcia took 38.8%; neither cleared a majority, so the two meet again on November 3. This is a nonpartisan countywide seat. A Superior Court judge serves a six-year term on California's trial court — the court where criminal cases, family law, probate, small claims and most civil disputes are actually decided. One judge's rulings affect thousands of people a year, and judicial elections draw far less attention than the stakes warrant. Judges may be reappointed or re-elected for decades, so a six-year term is often the start of a much longer tenure. We could not find substantive coverage of either candidate, and no bar association evaluation for this race appears in the sources we track. That is worth knowing plainly: this is a six-year judicial appointment and the published record available to us describes only the primary result. Judicial ethics also limit what candidates may say about how they would rule, so some of this silence is structural rather than a choice either made. ## Michelle Paradise Michelle Paradise built her entire career inside the Riverside County justice system. She worked as a 911 dispatcher for the Riverside city police and fire departments while attending college and law school, earning her law degree from the University of San Diego and passing the bar in 1997 (Press-Enterprise). She then spent more than 25 years as a prosecutor in the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, handling child abuse, sex crimes and medically complex homicide cases (Press-Enterprise). She says she personally tried more than 100 cases before a jury (Press-Enterprise). She now serves as the county's Assistant County Executive Officer for Public Safety, overseeing the sheriff's department, the district attorney, the public defender, probation and the courts (Press-Enterprise). She says she took the post in 2023 to help fix staffing gaps and court backlogs left by the pandemic (Press-Enterprise). "For me, I've always felt that I've got to give back," Paradise said of her decision to run (Press-Enterprise). In her candidate questionnaire, she wrote that her judicial philosophy is "to follow the law, not politics, and to do so fairly, respectfully and with integrity" (Press-Enterprise). On discretionary calls, she wrote, she would "explain my reasoning clearly on the record" (Press-Enterprise). Her ballot statement says she was named California Prosecutor of the Year by the California District Attorneys Association (campaign site). That account comes from her own campaign rather than independent verification. She promises to "uphold the rule of law" evenly and consistently, setting aside personal views on the bench (Press-Enterprise). She says judges who step into policymaking risk "undermining both the rule of law and public confidence in the courts" (Press-Enterprise). **Strengths:** More than 25 years as a Riverside County prosecutor, over 100 jury trials, and current oversight of public safety agencies. **Trade-offs:** She has never served as a judge or worked as a defense attorney; her career has been prosecution and management. **Keep in mind:** She has never sat on the bench. Six years is a long first term to learn the job in front of the public. ## Andrea Garcia Andrea Garcia is a deputy public defender in San Bernardino County and a state-certified immigration-law specialist (Press-Enterprise). She works as an in-house advisor to public defenders and prosecutors on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions (Press-Enterprise). She earned her law degree from DePaul University College of Law in 2005 and was admitted to the California bar in 2007 (Press-Enterprise). After law school she volunteered with a human-rights organization in Oaxaca, Mexico (Press-Enterprise). She then worked more than a decade as a private immigration attorney representing people in deportation proceedings, before building the first immigration unit inside the Riverside County Public Defender's Office (Press-Enterprise). She also teaches as an adjunct law professor and, by her campaign's account, has drafted state legislation on proportional punishment and court access (campaign site). "There is no winning or losing... it's going to be literally looking at the law and being faithful to the law," Garcia said of why she wants to be a judge (Press-Enterprise). The documented fact worth knowing: she says she helped develop a post-conviction review project for noncitizens (Press-Enterprise). It reexamines old convictions for their immigration consequences and helps attorneys handle cases that could trigger deportation (Press-Enterprise). In her candidate questionnaire, she promises to apply the law "without bias, regardless of my personal experiences or beliefs," relying on "precedent and the common law" rather than personal judgment (Press-Enterprise). Her campaign site adds that she would keep working to expand due-process protections and access to the courts (campaign site). **Strengths:** Nearly 20 years across public defense, private immigration law, and both state and federal courts. **Trade-offs:** She has never served as a judge; her career has been almost entirely on the defense side of the courtroom. **Keep in mind:** Judges can be assigned to any area of law, from family court to probate, regardless of the background they arrive with. ## Review notes - Garcia for Judge 2026 and Michelle Paradise for Judge may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## Sources 1. [Riverside County elections office — certified June 2, 2026 primary results](https://voteinfo.net/sites/g/files/aldnop371/files/ElectionResults/2026/Jun26/ElectionSummaryReportRPT_June022026_Final-Certified-Results.pdf) 2. [Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary](https://ballotpedia.org) 3. [Press-Enterprise — 3 candidates seek open seat on Riverside County Superior Court bench (career histories, direct quotes on motivation and judicial philosophy)](https://www.pressenterprise.com/2026/05/21/3-candidates-seek-open-seat-on-riverside-county-superior-court-bench/) 4. [Press-Enterprise — Michelle Paradise, Riverside Judge Office No. 10 candidate, 2026 primary election questionnaire](https://www.pressenterprise.com/2026/05/05/michelle-paradise-riverside-judge-office-no-10-candidate-2026-primary-election-questionnaire/) 5. [Press-Enterprise — Andrea Garcia, Riverside Judge Office No. 10 candidate, 2026 primary election questionnaire](https://www.pressenterprise.com/2026/05/05/andrea-garcia-riverside-judge-office-no-10-candidate-2026-primary-election-questionnaire/) 6. [Michelle Paradise for Judge — ballot statement page (biography and career claims in her own words)](https://paradiseforjudge.com/ballot-statement/) 7. [Garcia for Judge 2026 — campaign homepage (biography and career claims in her own words)](https://garciaforjudge2026.com) ## The rest of the ballot Judge of the Superior Court, Office No. 10 — Riverside County is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Judge of the Superior Court, Office No. 10 — Riverside County — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/riverside-judge-office-10 (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026). 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