Litigation

Election 2010: Spending Soars in IL Retention Race

By Peter Hardin

As retention elections go, spending in the battle over reelecting Illinois Justice Thomas Kilbride is surging into the stratosphere, according to the latest report on the 2010 elections by the Justice at Stake Campaign and the Brennan Center for Justice.

Justice Kilbride has raised nearly $2.1 million toward his reelection, and the Illinois Civil Justice League, urging voters to oust the justice, has raised $561,000. The combined $2.6 million is extraordinary for a retention election, and the Illinois bout has become the nation?s most expensive one-candidate retention election in this decade, the groups said.

In addition, the groups reported, TV spending also cracked the $1 million mark in Ohio, and TV ads began airing in two contentious races in Michigan. In the battleground of Iowa, where three state Supreme Court justices are defending their seats against an ouster drive (see Gavel Grab), groups for and against the justices? retention have reported spending a total of $656,000, despite a several-week lull in TV ads.

?We are seeing a dramatic expansion in spending by special interest groups, who want to hold judges to narrow, one-issue agendas, and not to the law and the Constitution,? said Charles Hall, a Justice at Stake spokesman. ?Americans believe that campaign cash buys special treatment at the courthouse, so this is a new threat to public confidence in our courts.?

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.

In Illinois, the high-spending contest has been fueled by the same groups that created the most expensive high court election ever in 2004. In this year’s election, backing Justice Kilbride?s opponents are the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Tort Reform Association, which have spent $150,000 and nearly $64,000, respectively. Pumping in $180,000 in the last week was the American Justice Partnership, created by the National Association of Manufacturers.

Justice Kilbride has gotten most of his money?about $1.25 million of the $2.1 million he has raised?from the Democratic Party of Illinois. As in 2004, a big chunk of the party?s contributions was made by lawyers and law firms, many of them plaintiffs? litigators.

In February, Justice Kilbride was part of a 4-2 majority in  that overturned limits on medical malpractice awards?the third time the court has taken such a position.

The Illinois State Bar Association has condemned a soft-on-crime advertising campaign against Justice Kilbride run by JUSTPAC, a group affiliated with the Illinois Civil Justice League, as “inappropriate” and distorting of the judge’s record, according to a Chicago Sun-Times article.

In Iowa, the National Organization for Marriage stated in a report filed today that it is spending $200,000 for a second TV ad seeking to unseat three justices who were part of a 7-0 ruling that overturned a ban on gay marriage.

Fair Courts for US, a group led by former Republican governor Robert Ray that seeks to retain the three justices, reported spending $117,500, primarily for mailings and polling. (For new editorial commentary about the Iowa election, see Gavel Grab).

Nationally, $3,851,050 has been spent on air time in 2010, including general election and primary ads; in Ohio, a big portion of that came in Ohio, where a total of $1.1 million in air time has been purchased.

Full post as published by The Gavel on October 19, 2010 (boomark / email).