In 2016, Caldwell co-sponsored bills that would abolish the independent Judicial Qualifications Commission and replace it with a commission controlled by the Legislature.

The push is not a power grab, said state Rep. Wendell Willard, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a chief sponsor of the bill authorizing the amendment. "The people who were being appointed (to the JQC) … misused some of the powers given them. I, for one, thought there needed to be a reining in."

But former JQC Chairman Lester Tate, who resigned in April, said the proposed amendment is all about revenge. Since 2007, the commission has removed almost six dozen judges, including Caldwell. Some resigned rather than be subject to an investigation.

And Tate said regardless of the outcome of Georgia election 2016, the current JQC is "dead in the water because the Legislature has destroyed it."