"No Election Is Too Small For The Koch Brothers' Money"

[applegrove]

No Election Is Too Small For The Koch Brothers' Money

by Paul Blumenthal at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/25/judicial-election-campaign-spending_n_4164610.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

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Alicia Bannon, counsel for the Brennan Center's Democracy program, said that the increased spending, especially on television ads, has "created a carnival atmosphere where judges are starting to look indistinguishable from other sorts of politicians."

"We don't want our judges to be politicians in robes," Bannon said. "We expect our judges to be above politics and these mud-slinging ads hurt public confidence in the integrity of our judicial system."

Michigan's judicial elections topped the list for spending in the 2012 campaign, with more than $13 million spent by the candidates, political parties and independent groups combined. Political parties were the dominant spenders in Michigan, where a 4-3 conservative majority on the state Supreme Court was at risk, but was ultimately maintained.

Perhaps the most well-known judicial race of 2012, the recall election of Wisconsin state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, saw the second largest amount of money. More than $5.1 million was spent in the race between Prosser and JoAnne Kloppenburg, with the vast majority coming from independent groups with partisan affiliations, including the pro-labor Greater Wisconsin Committee and the pro-business Issues Council of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. Prosser kept his seat, maintaining the conservative majority on the court.



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