ILLINOIS JUDGES: Dirty laundry
11/19/2004

EVERYBODY KNEW that special-interest groups were trying to buy a judge from Southern Illinois in this month's lavishly financed race for the Illinois Supreme Court. Nevertheless, the two sides tried to keep secret the names of some of their biggest donors.
The Post-Dispatch's Kevin McDermott and Paul Hampel reported on Sunday that interest groups on both sides of the Lloyd Karmeier-Gordon Maag race disguised their contributions by laundering them through groups with neutral-sounding names such as Justice for All and the Jobs Coalition. Judge Karmeier won the bidding war.
Everybody's for jobs and justice. So who could be against the Jobs Coalition or Justice for All?
Actually, a lot of people might be if they knew who was funding them. It was a poorly kept secret that trial lawyers wanted the Democratic candidate, Mr. Maag, thinking he would keep the scales of justice tilted their way in Madison County. The Chamber of Commerce wanted Republican Judge Karmeier, hoping he would protect corporate interests.
But the organizations made sure that no one knew the names of their funders. Justice for All of East Alton laundered $385,000 through the Justice for All PAC, which contributed the money to Mr. Maag. The Jobs Coalition of Oak Brook, Ill., laundered $445,000 through the Jobs Coalition PAC for Judge Karmeier.
State law requires that political action committees disclose the names of big donors. That means Justice for All PAC had to disclose that its money came from the Justice for All group. But that only leads voters to another brick wall, because the Justice For All group doesn't have to disclose the names of its donors.
The obscene $8.5 million spent on the race paid for TV time on St. Louis stations that gave the campaigns an opportunity to sling mud at each other. They traded unseemly charges about the competition going easy on pedophiles and freeing inmates who tortured old ladies. All those charges were distortions - and both men knew it.
Cynthia Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said Thursday that her Chicago group is going to ask the Illinois State Board of Elections to investigate whether the contribution-laundering scheme violates the state law against anonymous political donations. If it doesn't, the legislature may need to tighten campaign reporting laws to require more detail on the contributors to groups that are funneling donations through PACs. This is an important loophole to close because all campaigns, not just judicial ones, can sneak through it.
For judges, the best solution is for Illinois to stop electing its appeals court judges. Missouri's Nonpartisan Court Plan for selecting judges in urban areas and on appeals courts is a good model. Contrary to its name, the plan is not entirely nonpartisan, but it avoids the spectacle of big campaign contributors buying judgeships.
Judges should not blow hot and cold with the chills and fevers of public opinion. And they should not be - or appear to be - bought and paid for by special interests. Illinois needs a constitutional amendment to abandon the election of appeals judges so that the people of Illinois can feel confident that their courts are fair and impartial.
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