From the Quincy city Times

October 15th, 2004

Supreme Court race gets ugly
By Associated Press
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SPRINGFIELD (AP) — Two judges locked in a high-profile state Supreme Court race are targeting each other in television ads that accuse the opponent of going soft on violent criminals.
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One ad raps Democrat Gordon Maag for voting to overturn the conviction of a child sex offender. Another targets Republican Lloyd Karmeier for giving probation to a kidnapper who attacked an elderly woman.
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A campaign watchdog group says the ads mislead voters and skew the judges’ records.
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“There’s more to any of these situations that are now being advertised,” said Mary Schaafsma of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. “At the end, the voters are confused.”
The race in the sprawling southern Illinois district has become one of the state’s most closely watched this fall and has drawn national attention because of the political stakes involved.
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Democrats control the court with a 5-2 majority, but a Republican win could make a difference in some important cases, and the possibility of the state passing medical malpractice reform laws, which the court has weighed in on before, has drawn the interest of powerful lobbying groups.
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The combination has led to an astonishing amount of campaign cash being funneled into a judicial race. This month alone, the candidates have raised more than $2.3 million combined, including in-kind contribution such as this week’s television ads, which are paid for by the party but authorized by the candidate.
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The two candidates say the ads are both unfair and part of informing voters about their opponent’s record on the bench.
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One ad says Karmeier, a Washington County judge since 1986, gave probation to a mentally retarded sex offender in 1990 who was accused of luring three young children into his home with candy and then abusing them. Another says the judge gave probation to one of three kidnappers who beat and stole thousands of dollars from an elderly woman in 1999.
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“We count on judges to protect us and put violent criminals behind bars,” says the narrator in one of the ads. “Judge Lloyd Karmeier let us down by giving reduced sentences to violent criminals.”
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Karmeier spokesman Steve Tomaszewski said the ads don’t tell the whole story. Karmeier initially gave the sex offender a six-year prison sentence that was sent back for resentencing by an appellate court, and the kidnapper would have received only a short prison term anyway, he said.
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“They’re embellishing quite a bit,” Tomaszewski said. “It’s absolutely outrageous.”
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Maag spokesman Brendan Hostetler said the ads, paid for by the Illinois Democratic Party, inform voters of important Karmeier decisions.
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“This is a race about qualifications,” Hostetler said. “It is relevant what you’ve done in the past. This is what he’s done in the past.”