Litigation

Thursday Judicial Elections Roundup

By Peter Hardin

In dispatches from state judicial elections, and also about ballot initiatives, around the country:

GEORGIA: The Secretary of State’s office is looking at information about a potential election law violation by lawyer Matt Wilson, campaigning for a seat on the state Supreme Court, after the campaign of incumbent Justice David Nahmias raised questions, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article reported.

OHIO: A Huffington Post commentary decries “‘justice for sale’ financing of Republican candidates to Ohio’s top court” under the headline, “”Doctors and Insurance Companies Purchase their Policy at the Ohio Supreme Court.” The article also reports that according to Justice at Stake, TV spending has cracked $1 million.

WASHINGTON STATE: Judges ought to step aside when big campaign donors appear before them, contends state Supreme Court candidate Charlie Wiggins, while incumbent Justice Richard Sanders opposes campaign regulations, according to a KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio report on their race.

NEVADA: Nevadans for Qualified Judges, a group supporting a switch to merit-based selection of judges, has raised more than $354,000 for its drive, the Reno Gazette Journal reported. Meanwhile a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial urged a vote against the proposed reform.

MICHIGAN: “Take partisan politics out of judicial elections,” declared the headline for a Detroit Free Press editorial asking voters to authorize a constitutional convention in 2011. The editorial explained:

“The dysfunctional judicial election system, currently dominated by million-dollar campaigns bankrolled by anonymous groups with a rooting interest in state Supreme Court cases, is among the strongest arguments for the sort of serious reappraisal only a state constitutional convention could provide.”

ILLINOIS: The retention election facing Justice Thomas Kilbride has become the most expensive single-candidate election of the decade, Legal Newsline reported in quoting from the latest report on the 2010 elections by Justice at Stake and the Brennan Center for Justice.

You can learn more about these and other state campaigns and votes from the JAS Judicial Elections 2010 page.

Full post as published by The Gavel on October 21, 2010 (boomark / email).