Litigation

Alabama Supreme Court Race Among Most Expensive

By Lissette Villarruel

In its final reporting on campaign expenditures, Alabama remained among the ranks of the nation’s most expensive states for state Supreme Court elections, with an estimated $5.3 million spent by the official campaigns and outside groups.

According to an article in The Birmingham News, candidates Deborah Bell Paseur and newly elected Greg Shaw spent a total of $4.3 million  in a closely contested election. In addition, third-party groups spent an estimated $1 million on TV ads favoring Shaw or attacking Paseur.

About two-thirds of Paseur?s $2.5 million campaign fund came from the state Democratic Party executive committee, which included contributions from plaintiffs’ lawyers and the state teachers? union.  Shaw, a Republican, received most of   his $1.8 million from pro-business political action committees.

In addition, the Virginia-based Center for Individual Freedom ran over 2,400 TV ads, worth an estimated $850,000, in a third-party campaign supporting Shaw. 

The $4.3 million spent by the official campaigns was the most in 2008. But the combined total including independent groups was less than the estimated $6 million spent in Wisconsin last spring, the Associated Press reported.

According to a report posted last summer in Gavel Grab, outside groups spent an estimated $4.8 million  in Wisconsin, overshadowing the $1.2 million spent by candidates Louis Butler and Michael Gableman.

Full post as published by The Gavel on February 07, 2009 (boomark / email).