From the Chicago Tribune

Time to junk rotting judicial election system
By Mike Lawrence
Published November 14, 2004
Voters in southern Illinois faced a fascinating choice last week. Both judicial candidates had coddled child molesters. One had gone easy on kidnappers who tortured a 92-year-old grandmother to death; the other had sided with a man who beat a 15-year-old boy into a vegetative state. In the end, they sent to the Supreme Court from the 5th Judicial District the jurist who supposedly had no problem with killers of little old ladies--and, by the way, is also a tool of Big Tobacco.
Folks, are we finally ready to stop electing judges in Illinois?
Winner Lloyd Karmeier actually is no fan of those who prey on the very young or the elderly. Neither is Gordon Maag. Nevertheless, the two veteran judges were cast as pushovers for creeps, corporations and greedy lawyers in a fusillade of TV commercials that mangled their rulings and undoubtedly left residents throughout the 37-county battleground convinced that either of these robed rogues would taint the judiciary's top tier.
What were they to surmise given their paucity of real knowledge about the character and legal acumen of the candidates? How could they believe the newest Supreme Court member would be a thoughtful, skilled champion of the law amid reports nearly $10 million was pouring into the campaigns from litigators, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the health-care industry and other entities bent on influencing the outcome?
In truth, Karmeier is an excellent judge. The Illinois State Bar Association rated him "highly qualified." He is respected even among lawyers who contributed heavily to Maag. There is every reason to expect he will be fair and scholarly, even though a key to his victory was support from physicians and others who contend the Supreme Court and judges in Madison County have been toadies for trial lawyers. Indeed, if advocates of medical malpractice reform can sell the Republican hopeful's success in a judicial district dominated by Democrats for more than three decades as groundswell support for their cause, Karmeier's triumph may have more impact in the General Assembly and the governor's office than in the courts.
Still, Karmeier and the state's judiciary have been demeaned by the nastiness in the most expensive contest of its kind in our nation's history. Slashing ads, often deceptive and frequently savage, have become staples of legislative, gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. So have the infusions of interest-group cash that bankroll the attacks and buy admission into the corridors of power. But there is a singular unseemliness about all of this when it comes to choosing the ultimate guardians of our liberties and our right to equal treatment under the law.
The Karmeier-Maag clash punctuated a trend we have seen in Illinois and elsewhere, now that professional, business and political organizations have identified state Supreme Court rulings as vital to their agendas. It requires a strong response.
In Illinois, we should change the constitution to provide for appointment of judges at every level by the governor, subject to Senate confirmation.
In a bow to those wary of empowering a chief executive, we could establish screening panels of lawyers and non-lawyers to narrow the governor's choices. If that is too much reform for our leaders and our citizens, we could continue to elect local judges. If Illinois is still not ready to have judges appointed, we should at least provide public funding for Supreme Court contests to dilute the influence of interest groups.
No process is perfect and devoid of politics. But we cannot continue to tolerate what we now have in Illinois, a rotting system that is becoming smellier with each election cycle.
Mike Lawrence heads the Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.