Litigation

Who?s Bankrolling Challenge to MO Merit Selection?

By Peter Hardin

It’s important when evaluating a political campaign to know the high-rollers and something about their motives. But in a current battle over changing the way Missouri selects most of its judges, that information is from scarce to nonexistent.

That’s the conclusion of an in-depth article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, entitled “Groups battling over Missouri plan are fuzzy on donors:”

“For all the talk in the Show-Me State this year about adding transparency to the campaign finance process, the dirty little secret in political circles is that it’s still remarkably easy for campaign committees to hide the source of their funds.

“And the battle over how judges are chosen offers plenty of insight into how the game is played.”

A group called ShowMe Better Courts is working for a ballot initiative to replace Missouri?s nationally recognized merit system for selecting appellate and state Supreme Court judges with competitive elections.

Another group called the American Democracy Alliance has pumped $100,000 into supporting the initiative campaign. “But don’t ask the American Democracy Alliance what it is or where it gets its money. It doesn’t have to tell you, and it won’t,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

Former Missouri Supreme Court Justice Chip Robertson, a leader of a nonprofit group defending merit selection called Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts, furnished the newspaper a list of 45 law firms that gave it money. But the average citizen can’t get his hands on such information, the newspaper noted.

To learn more about the controversy over merit selection in Missouri, check out Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on April 14, 2010 (boomark / email).