Litigation

MO Partisan Elections: A ?Terrible? Idea

By Peter Hardin

Activists who want to change the way Missouri selects most of its judges face a May 2 deadline for turning in signatures to get a statewide vote.

As that deadline approaches, the Kansas City Star editorial board has taken a strong stand against replacing Missouri?s nationally recognized merit system for selecting appellate and state Supreme Court judges with competitive elections.

A Star editorial takes issue with the large sums of money, “some with murky origins,” getting pumped into the petition drive and proceeds to blast the idea of partisan judicial elections as a “terrible idea:”

“States that elect judges are increasingly recoiling from campaigns that feature untraceable donations, character attacks on candidates and deceptive ads.”

In its message to citizens invited to sign the petition, the editorial warns:

“In a little more than a month, special interests have poured more than half a million dollars into an aggressive effort to change the makeup of Missouri?s highest courts.

“Imagine for a moment that they succeed. How much influence peddling will we see when a state Supreme Court judgeship is on the line?”

You can learn more from earlier Gavel Grab posts about the petition drive in Missouri, and about Missouri’s merit selection system.

Full post as published by The Gavel on April 15, 2010 (boomark / email).