Belleville News-Democrat

Posted on Thu, Aug. 26, 2004

Foes to disavow cheap shots
BY BRIAN BRUEGGEMANN
bbrueggemann@bnd.comCOLLINSVILLE - Mud-slinging has no place in an Illinois Supreme Court race, and candidates Lloyd Karmeier and Gordon Maag have been warned, the Illinois State Bar Association announced Wednesday.
Both Maag and Karmeier attended a news conference in Collinsville called Wednesday by the bar association, which has formed a committee to monitor questionable campaigning. Both agreed to disavow any campaigning -- including that done by third parties -- deemed to adversely affect the reputation or dignity of the courts.
Karmeier and Maag each signed a pledge stating they will "disavow advertisements that impugn the dignity, integrity or independence of a candidate ... or which erode public trust and confidence in the dignity, integrity or independence of the judiciary."
The race has been heated between Karmeier, a Republican circuit judge from Washington County, and Maag, a Democrat and appellate court justice from Glen Carbon. An anonymous person claiming to be a disgruntled Republican has taken trash from outside the office of Karmeier's campaign manager, and a Karmeier staffer has sued a representative of an interest group who visited the staffer's ex-wife while investigating him.
Projections are that more than $1 million will be thrown at the race, much of it by interest groups.
Illinois State Bar Association president Ole Bly Pace III said the group is concerned the race will become part of a national trend of interest groups trying to "inject their favorite issues" into judicial races.
"Our citizens must be able to have confidence that they can turn to our courts and receive a fair hearing and justice," Pace said. "Ad campaigns that suggest judges are merely tools of interest groups help destroy confidence in our system of justice. Our system of justice cannot leave the impression that judicial elections are based on political parties or particular interest groups."
Interest groups already are weighing in on the race. Business groups have been helping Karmeier, while plaintiff attorneys recently have made big donations to the state Democratic Party. Business groups predict the donations from the plaintiff attorneys will be funneled to Maag.
After the news conference, Karmeier submitted a letter to the committee voicing concern.
"I have already experienced the continuing distribution of extremely negative literature from an organization admittedly funded in substantial part by lawyers who may well be members of the ISBA," Karmeier wrote.
He declined to elaborate. Victims and Families United, a Madison County-based plaintiffs group backed by lawyers, has been critical of Karmeier.
Maag, when asked whether he's seen any campaigning he'd like the committee to address, replied: "I simply say, let's get on with it. That's in the past."
The committee's chairman, Rockford attorney Thomas Johnson, said the committee will go to the press when candidates are asked to publicly disavow a campaign statement but refuse.
If problem material is distributed by one of the candidates, the candidate will be asked to withdraw it.
Johnson, when asked about hypothetical situations, said it's difficult to define the type of material which would draw action from the committee.
"We hope we'll know it when we see it," he said.
The committee is made up of four Democrats, four Republicans and one with no party affiliation. It will monitor the Maag-Karmeier race, an appellate court race in north-central Illinois and future races for state Supreme Court and appeals courts.
The members, along with Johnson, are attorney Thomas Clancy of Chicago, U.S. Magistrate Judge John Gorman of Peoria, attorney Mary Lee Leahy of Springfield, retired Illinois Supreme Court Justice John Nickels of St. Charles, former appeals court Judge Lawrence Pusateri of Chicago, Southern Illinois University School of Law associate professor Shari Rhode, retired Illinois Supreme Court Justice Seymour Simon and Mary Schaafsma of Chicago, who is judicial project director for Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.