From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Money flows into judicial race
By Paul Hampel
Of the Post-Dispatch
10/25/2004

The rich race for the Illinois Supreme Court has suddenly gotten a lot
richer.
Since Thursday, almost $1.5 million flowed into the race, as Madison
County trial lawyers and the Illinois Republican Party cut checks to
cover television attack advertisements.
The new money was on top of a state judicial election record of $5
million collected as of last Wednesday by the campaigns of Washington
County Circuit Judge Lloyd Karmeier, a Republican from Nashville, Ill., and
his Democratic opponent, 5th District Appellate Judge Gordon Maag, who
is from Glen Carbon.
The two men are seeking the Supreme Court's 5th District slot, which
covers the 37 southernmost counties in Illinois.
The big spending in the Illinois judicial race reflects a national
trend. Such spending is at a record level this year.
The total raised in every judicial election in the nation combined in
2002 did not reach $1 million until Oct. 19 of that year.
Through Oct. 17 of this year, more than $8 million had been spent on
television advertising in judicial races around the country.
And the advertisements work, according to Deborah Goldberg of the
Democracy Program at the Brennan Center.
"There's a very, very strong correlation between the person who has the
most campaign spending and the person who wins," Goldberg told The New
York Times. "In 2002, in nine of 11 races with TV advertising, the
biggest spenders, including spending by supporters, won."
On Thursday, Madison County asbestos attorney Randy Bono wrote checks
of $100,000 and $95,000 to the Justice for All PAC, which opposes
Karmeier.
That same day, the PAC collected $200,000 from the personal injury firm
Bono works for, SimmonsCooper of East Alton, and an additional $105,000
from the Justice For All Foundation, a union-affiliated group based in
East Alton.
The one-day total of $500,000 went straight to the election's
front-line battleground, paying for fresh television advertisements attacking
Karmeier's record.
The state's GOP counterattacked on Friday with a $911,000 in-kind
contribution to cover television ads that slam Maag.
That donation came one day after the American Tort Reform Association
gave $100,000 to JUSTPAC to pay for anti-Maag ads.
The race has drawn national interest for several reasons. Among them is
that after the Nov. 2 election, the Supreme Court is expected to
consider the appeal of a $10.1 billion verdict in a class-action suit that
alleged Philip Morris had deceived Illinois smokers about the dangers of
light cigarettes.
Also key in the race is the role the winning judge will play in
appointments to lower courts. Supreme Court justices fill vacancies on circuit
and appellate courts caused by deaths and retirements. The appointees
can then go into the subsequent election as an incumbent.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
Reporter Paul Hampel
E-mail: paulh@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 618-659-3639