The 2006 elections are now just over one week away.

And while all manner of ballot propositions, TV and radio ads, and mailer after mailer from candidates are grabbing for your attention, there are two items this week that I believe you should be made aware of.

One is an organized effort by a group of hunters to get you to vote "no" on the retention of 3rd District Judge Leslie Lewis.

The other is what we in the newspaper business call a "stuffer" — an insert that came in last Wednesday's Deseret Morning News and The Salt Lake Tribune.

First, Judge Lewis. The acerbic judge has been in the news before, often for her inside- or outside-the-courtroom blasts at people. But if you can get on to the Internet, you really need to view a February 2006 incident where the judge got angry when a man sitting in the public-audience part of her courtroom got up in a disgusted manner and walked out. Judge Lewis had been berating his brother, a defendant, charged with a hunting violation.

You really need to see this for yourself. Thank goodness that courtrooms have security video cameras. The aggrieved parties got a copy of that fuzzy tape and put it online. While the video is bad, the audio is clear. The loud female voice you hear is Judge Lewis. You can't miss it, or misunderstand what she is doing.

The video ends after she has ordered her bailiff (a Salt Lake County deputy sheriff) to take into custody the man who had walked out of her courtroom. The citizen, not charged with anything, was brought back into the courtroom by the officer after he walked out. The man dared to argue with her judgeship and was shouted down by Judge Lewis, who said this week that she was just trying to maintain order in her court.

The hunter group has started its own Web site: www.firejudgelewis.com. Go there and click on the link to YouTube, where the security video will play for you. You may have to watch this a few times to believe what you are hearing.

What I like about this video is that it is a confirmation to what a number of legislators and others have believed for some time: The Judicial Conduct Commission, along with the official Utah State Voter Information Pamphlet, do little to really deal with this kind of judicial conduct or provide valuable, real-world information on judges' retention elections.

Pick up your official State of Utah Voters Pamphlet put out by the Lieutenant Governor's Office, and read the part about Judge Lewis. If you are really good at comparing a lot of confusing ranking numbers — hers with other judges' — you may get a hint that there's something wrong here. She gets substandard grades in two of 15 areas of rankings, but it is difficult to figure that out.