Melissa Gifford Hise will be the new Lookout Mountain Superior Court Judge after defeating Ann Willard Fiddler in the nonpartisan election held on Tuesday.  Hise, a Walker County resident who practices law in Chattooga County, will be replacing longtime Superior Court Judge Kristina Cook Graham who announced her retirement earlier this year.

The Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit includes Walker, Dade, Catoosa and Chattooga Counties.  Hise won handily, garnering 5,980 votes to Fiddler’s 3,834 votes across the circuit.

Judge Graham, the daughter of famed Summerville Attorney Bobby Lee Cook, was first appointed to the bench by then-Georgia Governor Zell Miller and went on to serve for over three decades.  Judge Graham won eight election since her appointment to the bench.  In her tenure, Graham has established three accountability courts and obtained state funding for those courts.