From Chicago Sun-Times

Lawyers group to watch judicial election ads
August 25, 2004
BY SUSAN SKILES LUKE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The state's biggest lawyers' group said Wednesday it will start monitoring judicial campaigns in an effort to add civility to a southern Illinois Supreme Court race that has generated a lawsuit, allegations of garbage picking and a television commercial exhorting voters to get rid of "bad judges."
At the Collinsville press conference where the Illinois State Bar Association announced the new effort, the group also induced the two Supreme Court candidates-- Democrat Gordon Maag and Republican Lloyd Karmeier-- to sign pledges disavowing advertisements that impugn the dignity of their opponent or the judiciary.
The candidates voiced support for the group's efforts but denied having anything to do with the spate of negative commercials and hardball campaign tactics that have characterized the 5th District Supreme Court race so far.
"Neither I nor Maag has gotten out of line," Karmeier said afterward. He has raised $267,000 in cash and in-kind contributions this year, much of it from a political action committee bankrolled by insurance companies and others who support damage-award caps on lawsuits.
"On the back of the Shrine Circus bulletin, I had my picture saying 'Best Wishes,"' Maag said after the press conference. "That's the extent of my media campaign." Maag collected $84,000 in cash and in-kind gifts this year, and is generally supported by trial lawyers and others who oppose lawsuit limits. Neither candidate has been accused of personally engaging in inappropriate conduct.
But as in the presidential race, third party groups have been weighing in here too.
A group called the Illinois Civil Justice League, which has contributed money to Karmeier, ran a commercial in the St. Louis area accusing "bad judges" of running businesses out of Illinois by handing big verdicts to trial lawyers.
Another group, dubbed Victims and Families United, ran newspaper ads blasting Karmeier for being associated with the League.
The leader of Victims and Families United, Doug Wojcieszak, has been named in a lawsuit filed by Karmeier's finance chairman, Dwight Kay, over a visit Wojcieszak made to Kay's ex-wife. Representing Kay in the lawsuit is attorney Stephen McGlynn, co-chair of the Illinois Republican Party.
Wojcieszak admits visiting Diane Kay on July 13. He said he was looking into Dwight Kay's legal past since the candidate Kay supports, Karmeier, "wants to limit others' access to the courts."
McGlynn said Wojcieszak displayed the Kays' divorce file and demanded personal information. Maag and Karmeier have both denied knowing Wojcieszak or his group.
Wojcieszak also denies allegations he was behind an incident of garbage rifling last spring outside the Okawville office of Sen. David Luechtefeld, a longtime friend of Karmeier's and chairman of his campaign.
Mike Lawrence, interim director of Southern Illinois University's Public Policy Institute, isn't sure the bar association's new effort will change the tone of the campaign. But it might be worthwhile, he said.
"I'm not sure it will discourage third-party groups from running hard-hitting commercials in this campaign, but the more information the public gets, the better," he said.
Bar association president Ole Bly Pace said the group stepped in because third party ads are being used in judicial races nationally and they undermine confidence in the courts. Pace said he had not seen the ads run in the southern Illinois campaign.
The bar association's effort will include having a panel of lawyers and former judges review complaints about advertisements or public statements in judicial campaigns. If the group decides an ad or statement is inappropriate, it will ask the candidate it benefits to disavow it.
League president Ed Murnane won't rule out buying more commercials in the race. He thinks the bar group's new effort oversteps its bounds.
"If the ISBA has a problem with the way judicial campaigns are conducted, they ought to take it up with the Legislature," Murnane said.
Wojcieszak said his group will now focus on fighting limits to medical malpractice cases, not the Supreme Court race.Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.