“Can I do this?” Civil Deputy Robin Henry said, taking the petition for Inyo County Superior Court Judge into his hands as he glanced over at his boss, Inyo County Sheriff Stephanie J. Rennie, seated at the back table of the Crowbar Cafe & Saloon in Shoshone.
“As long as you’re off duty,” Rennie advised Henry.
On Jan. 26, Inyo County District Attorney Dana Crom brought her campaign for Inyo County Superior Court Judge to the desert outpost of Shoshone, pairing a petition signature drive with a meet-and-greet at the Crowbar—one of the few places around that reliably functions as a public square.
Afterward, Crom posted a thank-you message on Facebook that captured the tone of the visit—part politics, part neighborly roll call:
“A big thank you to everyone who attended the gathering at the Shoshone Cafe yesterday; it was wonderful to see old friends and make new connections. I appreciate Bill Lutze’s efforts in coordinating the event and Robbie Haynes’s hospitality. Meaningful interactions with residents across Inyo county’s expansive regions are truly valuable.”
The name mix-up in the post—and on a flyer—didn’t go unnoticed. At least one resident asked publicly on social media whether the “Shoshone Cafe” referenced was, in fact, the Crowbar. It’s a minor correction, but an instructive one: in a county where towns can be separated by long miles of empty road, names and places carry weight. The Crowbar sits on State Highway 127, a familiar waypoint for Death Valley travelers and a gathering place for locals in a region where “countywide” can mean hours of driving in every direction.
Crom leaned into that reality in a story she shared with TecopaCabana—a memory that turned on the same desert conditions that make Shoshone feel both intimate and far away from Tecopa. Years ago, likely around 2012, Crom said she arrived in Tecopa after dark for an overnight work trip. With no cell service and a simple instruction—Room 8 will be open—she found the first “Room 8” she could, let herself in, and went straight to sleep. By morning, the room’s emptiness told on her: no towels, no ordinary setup, just the feeling of a space not meant for guests. At the desk, staff explained the problem. No one was supposed to be in that room at all; the carpets were being cleaned. Only then did she realize she hadn’t entered the wrong room—she’d checked into the wrong establishment altogether, landing at what was then Delight’s (now Death Valley) Hot Springs instead of Tecopa Hot Springs Resort. She offered to pay. They refused. She moved quickly to the correct Room 8, grateful, she said, for the kind of practical grace Tecopa is known for.
This time, the evening’s sense of familiarity came from the people. Crom was joined at the Crowbar by a strong show of support from Inyo County law enforcement, underscoring her deep professional ties to the agency that works closest with the district attorney’s office.
From One Side of the Bench to the Other
The Shoshone stop comes after Sierra Wave Media reported in December that Crom formally announced her judicial run, pitching her candidacy in the language voters tend to listen for in courthouse races—experience, accountability, and a court culture where people feel heard and treated with dignity.
If successful, Crom’s bid will effectively switch her role at the center of Inyo County’s justice system. As district attorney, her office brings criminal cases and argues positions in court. As a Superior Court judge, she would sit on the other side of the bench, making the rulings that shape outcomes and set the courtroom’s culture—from how hearings are run to how quickly cases move to how people are treated when they walk through the doors. In a county with a very small court, the addition or replacement of even one judge can meaningfully change that day-to-day “tone and tempo” for everyone who relies on the system.
Her candidacy also comes on a compressed timeline. Crom, the first woman to hold the position, became district attorney by appointment, not through a regular election cycle, after longtime DA Tom Hardy retired. The Board of Supervisors used its formal process to fill the remainder of Hardy’s unexpired term, and county records show Crom’s appointment took effect Jan. 16, 2025. Later local reporting described her as the only applicant and noted that the appointment runs until early 2028, when that term expires.
At the time of Crom’s appointment, The Sheet portrayed her as a Bishop native shaped by decades of Inyo County public service: college at Cal State–Sacramento, law school at the University of the Pacific, early career in the Bay Area, then a return home in 1995 to serve as deputy county counsel. It described two stints in County Counsel, a seven-year stretch in private practice, and a move to the DA’s office in 2014, where she rose to become Tom Hardy’s assistant before supervisors appointed her to succeed him. The profile also noted her roots run deep—she is the daughter of former Bishop Police Lt. and City Councilman Frank Crom.
Inyo’s judicial elections are often quiet, but the stakes are structural. The Superior Court is small, and the judge’s chair is not an abstract office here; it is a daily presence that touches bail decisions, sentencing outcomes, child custody disputes, restraining orders, probate matters, and the tone of a courtroom where residents may show up under extraordinary stress.
Inyo County’s Superior Court is a two-judge operation: two elected trial judges preside over essentially every kind of case filed in the county, across a vast geography and a small court system.
That makes the June 2, 2026 primary election unusually consequential. Both seats—Judge of the Superior Court, Office No. 1 and Office No. 2—are on the primary ballot, each for a six-year term. And crucially, these are nonpartisan races: candidates run without party labels, and voters choose based on record, reputation, and judicial temperament—not a D or an R.
That system has also had visible strain. In late 2025, according to law.com, “Superior Court Judge Susanne Rizo accused her presiding judge [Stephen Place] of aiding and abetting two court executives Rizo reported to the state bar.” California’s judicial discipline authorities issued a public admonishment in the matter, finding that Rizo, the first female judge elected in Inyo County, filed State Bar complaints against court executives without a good-faith basis and that the conflict contributed to a contentious atmosphere in a small courthouse. The underlying details are procedural, but the takeaway for voters is simple: in a courthouse this small, workplace conflict doesn’t stay behind closed doors for long.
The Judicial Primary Field
Crom will not be alone on the ballot. Also on Jan. 26, Bishop attorney Taylor Fitzmaurice announced she is running for the same Inyo County Superior Court judgeship, describing her candidacy as grounded in fairness, independence, and public trust.
In a county as geographically large—and socially close-knit—as Inyo, that sets up a familiar kind of contest: one candidate running from inside the justice system’s leadership structure, another making the case from outside it. The dividing line is not ideology so much as posture—continuity versus change, institutional experience versus an attorney’s promise of independence and reset.
Inyo County elections officials say the Superior Court races are still in the pre-filing phase: no one has officially filed yet, even as campaigns are already underway.
What the county has, for now, are pre-candidates—people who have pulled papers and are circulating petitions to gather the nomination signatures needed to qualify. For Superior Court Judge, Office No. 1, elections staff say Crom and Fitzmaurice are currently collecting signatures. For Superior Court Judge, Office No. 2, they report incumbent Stephen Place and Gerard Harvey are doing the same.
The early activity is being driven by a short timeline. Jan. 26 marked the first day judicial candidates could file their required Letter of Intention, and the deadline is Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. Elections staff expect contenders to file close to that cutoff—after gathering as many signatures as possible—at which point the county will publish an official candidate list on its elections site.
Crom, for her part, told TecopaCabana that her ex is also a lawyer running for a judicial seat—an aside that, in a small legal community, reads less like gossip than like a reminder of how interwoven public roles can become in rural counties where perhaps fewer than ten people might even be interested and qualified for such a position.
However, the former spouses aren’t vying for the same seat; they’re running on parallel tracks.
Crom is seeking Superior Court Judge, Office No. 1. Her ex-husband, Harvey, a public defender, is running for Office No. 2, challenging incumbent Stephen Place—a race in which Place, with the built-in advantages of incumbency and familiarity in a small-court county, is widely expected to be favored over the challenger.
Voters might also remember that Harvey’s record includes a public, decade-old controversy. Sierra Wave reported that in 2009 he faced criminal allegations, including witness-related claims, amid earlier accusations that he appeared in court under the influence of narcotics; the outlet later reported the felony charges were dismissed in 2010, with narcotics counts dismissed or resolved through completion of a rehab program. His State Bar profile also reflects disciplinary history, including periods of actual suspension and a conviction record transmitted to State Bar Court in 2013.
Though there is a chance the former spouses could be co-judges running the county court system, the more immediate overlap is not on the ballot, but in the courtroom. In their current roles, Crom and Harvey routinely meet across the aisle—prosecutor and defense—inside the same tight judicial system they are now independently asking voters to elevate them to oversee.
For now, though, the race is taking shape in the most Inyo way possible: not in a television studio, but over tables and conversations at a highway cafe, with residents who may judge candidates less by slogans than by whether they show up, listen carefully, and keep coming back.
“Enjoyed attending the Inyo Associates meeting in Death Valley last night,” Crom wrote on social media from her final campaign stop in Southeast Inyo, “Thank you to Stovepipe Wells and POWDR for hosting. The informative updates on Death Valley National Park, including the anticipated reopening of Scotty’s Castle, were a reminder of how special the park is to Inyo County. A brief stop at Father Crowley Overlook was the perfect way to conclude my visit.”
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