Civil court judges hear cases in which $25,000 or less is in controversy. Elected to 10-year terms, these judges should be fair, honest, competent, energetic, knowledgeable, experienced, and independent. They should, in short, possess that elusive quality called judicial temperament.

We urge Democratic voters in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side of Manhattan to cast their ballots in Tuesday’s primary for two housing court judges seeking elevation to the Civil Court. Both candidates impress us as possessing a crucial advantage over their rivals: judicial experience.

In Manhattan, we endorse Shlomo Hagler. Mr. Hagler has been a housing court judge for the last four years, handling thousands of landlord-tenant cases and missing only one day of work in that time. None of Judge Hagler’s decisions has been overturned on appeal, indicating his mastery of the current state of the law. The fact that he is supported by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the ultimate Democratic insider, gives us some pause, but Judge Hagler has also earned the backing of political clubs based in the Lower East Side’s Latino and Asian communities. We believe he has a bright future as a judge.

In Brooklyn, we endorse Dawn Jimenez. As a housing court judge, Ms. Jimenez possesses the judicial experience that voters should always demand. She also deserves support for rejecting overtures from the Brooklyn Democratic leadership last year, when the party’s sachems sought to enlist her in a run against a sitting judge, Margarita Lopez-Torres, who had split from the machine. The idea appears to have been to divide the Latino vote, but Judge Jimenez sensibly and honorably declined to participate in the scheme, proof of her independence.

Judge Jimenez’s opponent, Shawndya Simpson, is a senior prosecutor who has served with distinction in the office of District Attorney Charles Hynes. But we are troubled by Ms. Simpson’s political proximity to the Court Street power brokers who have damaged the bench and the public trust by maintaining a closed, patronage-driven judicial selection system. At a time when faith in the borough’s judiciary has sunk to an all-time low, the election of Judge Jimenez sends the right signal.