Almost three-quarters of West Virginians surveyed favor adopting public financing for statewide judicial elections similar to North Carolina's program, a pollster told members of the Independent Commission on Judicial Reform on Friday.
Read more about the Independent Commission on Judicial Reform at www.judicialreform.wv.gov.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Almost three-quarters of West Virginians surveyed favor adopting public financing for statewide judicial elections similar to North Carolina's program, a pollster told members of the Independent Commission on Judicial Reform on Friday.
However, 56 percent of the 1,366 voters surveyed said they are against public funding in general for elections, said Jonathan Crook, a rising senior at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill who served as a summer fellow at Public Policy Polling in Raleigh, N.C.
Crook said he surveyed West Virginia voters in part because of the publicity surrounding the Massey v. Caperton case, which became controversial after West Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Brent Benjamin refused to recuse himself although Massey Energy Co. CEO Don Blankenship spent millions of his own money to unseat Benjamin's opponent.
The case went before the U.S. Supreme Court, and in June, following a 5-4 vote, the justices ordered Benjamin to step aside from the case.
Crook was one of 14 speakers who addressed the topic of judicial campaign finance at the commission's first public meeting, held at Marshall University on Friday. Gov. Joe Manchin signed the executive order creating the commission in April, tasking it with studying the state's judiciary and making recommendations for judicial reform.
The commission, chaired by Charleston lawyer Carte Goodwin, Manchin's former general counsel, will submit its final report to the governor on Nov. 15.
Retired U.S.Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who did not attend Friday's meeting, serves as the commission's honorary chairwoman. She is expected to attend the next public meeting, to be held in Morgantown on Sept. 21.
Two other speakers from North Carolina described the effects of the public-finance reforms in statewide judicial races that went into effect there with the 2004 elections.
Damon Circosta, an election law attorney with the North Carolina Center for Voter Education, said public financing has become mainstream in the Tarheel state, with the number of candidates opting into the program growing with each election after an initial level of 75 percent in 2004.
North Carolina funds the program, which includes mailing a state voter guide featuring candidate statements to every voter, by using a taxpayer check-off system similar to the box on federal tax returns. Additionally, he said, the government exacts from state lawyers a small surcharge.
While public financing shields judges from the appearance of impropriety that can come with soliciting and accepting donations from lawyers who appear in front of them, it does nothing to curb third-party and independent spending on behalf of the candidates, he said.
Read more about the Independent Commission on Judicial Reform at www.judicialreform.wv.gov.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Almost three-quarters of West Virginians surveyed favor adopting public financing for statewide judicial elections similar to North Carolina's program, a pollster told members of the Independent Commission on Judicial Reform on Friday.
However, 56 percent of the 1,366 voters surveyed said they are against public funding in general for elections, said Jonathan Crook, a rising senior at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill who served as a summer fellow at Public Policy Polling in Raleigh, N.C.
Crook said he surveyed West Virginia voters in part because of the publicity surrounding the Massey v. Caperton case, which became controversial after West Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Brent Benjamin refused to recuse himself although Massey Energy Co. CEO Don Blankenship spent millions of his own money to unseat Benjamin's opponent.
The case went before the U.S. Supreme Court, and in June, following a 5-4 vote, the justices ordered Benjamin to step aside from the case.
Crook was one of 14 speakers who addressed the topic of judicial campaign finance at the commission's first public meeting, held at Marshall University on Friday. Gov. Joe Manchin signed the executive order creating the commission in April, tasking it with studying the state's judiciary and making recommendations for judicial reform.
The commission, chaired by Charleston lawyer Carte Goodwin, Manchin's former general counsel, will submit its final report to the governor on Nov. 15.
Retired U.S.Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who did not attend Friday's meeting, serves as the commission's honorary chairwoman. She is expected to attend the next public meeting, to be held in Morgantown on Sept. 21.
Two other speakers from North Carolina described the effects of the public-finance reforms in statewide judicial races that went into effect there with the 2004 elections.
Damon Circosta, an election law attorney with the North Carolina Center for Voter Education, said public financing has become mainstream in the Tarheel state, with the number of candidates opting into the program growing with each election after an initial level of 75 percent in 2004.
North Carolina funds the program, which includes mailing a state voter guide featuring candidate statements to every voter, by using a taxpayer check-off system similar to the box on federal tax returns. Additionally, he said, the government exacts from state lawyers a small surcharge.
While public financing shields judges from the appearance of impropriety that can come with soliciting and accepting donations from lawyers who appear in front of them, it does nothing to curb third-party and independent spending on behalf of the candidates, he said.
Judge Wanda Bryant, who serves on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, said the new system helped dispel the big-money influence that had crept into judicial elections.
"It has helped us, as judges, feel better about the appearance of influence" by campaign donors, she said.
In addition, public financing has leveled the playing field by encouraging nonwealthy candidates to run, she said.
Other presenters included West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, state Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, and Carrie Webster, D-Kanawha, Kessler's counterpart in the House of Delegates.
Kessler and Webster said that, in the wake of the growing amounts of money pouring into races in 2000 and 2004, the Legislature's efforts have focused more on disclosure of who is giving money to candidates and third-party groups.
However, as Managing Deputy Attorney General Tom Smith reminded the commissioners, the Legislature's recent alterations to its electioneering laws have resulted in successful legal challenges from groups such as the Center for Individual Freedom. In 2008, the Virginia-based organization twice won injunctions against the enforcement of new electioneering laws as applied to written materials, such as newspaper ads and direct mailings, in federal court.
Ultimately, creating a public-financing option for judicial candidates will have very little effect on independent expenditures, said Kenneth A. Gross, a campaign law expert and a partner at the firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, in Washington, D.C.
The judicial trend, from the Supreme Court on down, is to ease restrictions on election finance, and new laws "won't be able to touch" outside groups, he said.
Putnam Circuit Judge O.C. "Hobby" Spaulding, president of the West Virginia Judicial Association (which includes all trial-court jurists), urged the commissioners to get their facts straight before tinkering with the way judges are selected. West Virginians have been electing judges the same way for 150 years, he said.
"If it's not broken, don't fix it," he said, adding that, if there is something broken with the judiciary, tell the judges, and they will try to remedy any problems.
"Don't make change just for the sake of making change," he said.
Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.
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