Litigation

WV House Approves Public Financing Pilot

By Peter Hardin

A pilot program for public financing of state Supreme Court elections in West Virginia won approval from the state House of Delegates on a 67-30 vote.

Proposed by Gov. Joe Manchin, the pilot plan is aimed at cleaning up elections where special interests can pump big sums into judicial campaigns too easily, the Herald-Dispatch reported.

“Money in politics is bad, but money in the judiciary is abhorrent to justice,” said Republican Patrick Lane. “Not only might it possibly influence somebody … but it is the appearance of impropriety that leads to the feeling of those participants in the court cases that they’re not getting a fair shake when they come before the judiciary.”

The legislation was introduced after an independent commission made recommendations on judicial reform (see Gavel Grab.) It would fund a pilot program for state Supreme Court elections in 2012.

A case from West Virginia before the U.S. Supreme Court thrust judicial elections there into the national limelight. The high court  in Caperton v. Massey required a West Virginia justice to step aside from hearing a case involving a coal company executive who spent $3 million to help the justice win election. Read more about Caperton in Gavel Grab, or read Justice at Stake’s amicus brief in the case.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 04, 2010 (boomark / email).