The New York Lawyer reports that American Bar Association President Thomas Wells, Jr. of Alabama strongly criticized the expensive, bare-knuckle judicial campaigns that occurred this year as undermining the public’s confidence in the judiciary.
In May, the bar association is urging state officials from all three branches of government to convene in Charlotte, NC for a meeting on how to promote a fair and independent judiciary.
Candidates for a vacant Supreme Court opening in Well’s home state spent about $5 million on the race, making it perhaps the most expensive such race this year. In fact, from 1994 through 2006, Alabama has been the focal point of the most campaign spending in the nation for judicial elections with candidates raising $54 million. Texas lags behind in second place with $30 million.
Although at the start the Alabama Supreme Court candidates pledged to run positive campaigns, at the end they were hurling accusations at one another about truthfulness and disparaging one another’s qualifications.
Going into 1994, Democrats held every seat on that court. Now the lineup is 8 to 1 in favor of Republicans who have been heavily supported by business interests over that time period.
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