From the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE:
… “The story of the 2009-2010 elections and their aftermath in state legislatures in 2011,” the report says, “reveals a coalescing national campaign that seeks to intimidate America’s state judges into becoming accountable to money and ideologies instead of the constitution and the law.” The most recent election cycle poses “some of the gravest threats yet to fair and impartial justice in America.”
Nearly a third of the $38.4 million spent on state high court elections in 2009-10 came from non-candidate groups, the report said. Although the spending was slightly less than in the last non-presidential election cycle, nearly 40 percent of the funds in high court races came from just 10 groups. More alarmingly, these spenders were behind three out of four attack ads.
Pennsylvania was among the worst offenders. In the period studied, it had the dubious distinction of hosting the nation’s second-most expensive high court election (after Michigan)…
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