Litigation

Election 2010: TV Ad Spending Surges

By Peter Hardin

Spending on state Supreme Court campaign TV advertising has surged nationally in the final approach to Election Day, with $3.3 million spent in the week ending Oct. 27, according to a report today by the Justice at Stake Campaign and the Brennan Center for Justice.

“The lion’s share of TV spending in judicial campaigns takes place just before Election Day, and over the past week there has been a dramatic increase in the volume of TV ads being run in judicial elections across the country,” said Adam Skaggs, Counsel with the Brennan Center. It is a Justice at Stake partner.

“Many of these spots are mudslinging attack ads by candidates and outside special interests which have been widely denounced as slanderous and misleading at best,” he added.

The recent TV ad binge has raised overall ad spending to nearly $13 million for the 2009-10 election cycle. In every major state except Illinois, business and conservative groups were outspending lawyers and unions.

The last non-presidential election cycle, in 2005-2006, saw about $16 million in TV ad spending.

About $4.3 million overall has been spent on retention (up-or-down) elections so far in 2010, according to the report by the two nonpartisan reform groups. That sum was nearly double the $2.2 million spent in all retention elections national for the entire past decade, as Justice at Stake and co-authors documented in “The New Politics of Judicial Elections 2000-2009: Decade of Change.”Here are the top TV ad spenders so far in 2010: the Michigan Republican Party, first, at $1,399,100; Illinois Justice Thomas Kilbride, targeted in a retention election, second at $1,361,550; the Partnership for Ohio’s Future, third, $846,340; the Michigan State Democratic Party, fourth, $554,470; and the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, fifth, at $356,570.

In Michigan, the GOP, Democratic Party, and Law Enforcement Alliance of America have spent a total $2,310,140, compared to $366,320 spent by the candidates themselves in two state Supreme Court races so far.

In Iowa’s hard-fought retention election for three state Supreme Court justices, national conservative groups have been three of the top spenders.

Of the nearly $1.1 million spent on that election, a combined $654,000 has come from the National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council (FRC), and the Campaign for Working Families, which has ties with the FRC. The battle hinges on a 2009 ruling that upheld same-sex marriage.

Several ads that surfaced in this season’s elections have included questionable claims, drawing complaints from editorial pages, a judges’ association, and FactCheck.org, which reviews campaign advertising (see Gavel Grab).

The top developments from judicial elections were reported by Justice at Stake and the Brennan Center for Justice in their joint web site, ?Judicial Elections 2010.? The site includes updates and links to TV ads from states facing high-court elections this year.

Full post as published by The Gavel on October 29, 2010 (boomark / email).