POLL SHOWS SUPPORT FOR REFORM OF JUDICIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGNS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Cindi Canary, 312-335-1767

September 4, 2002

POLL SHOWS SUPPORT FOR REFORM OF JUDICIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGNS

An overwhelming majority of voters believe campaign contributions, special interest groups and political party leaders influence the decisions of judges in Illinois, and there is considerable public support for public financing of judicial election campaigns.

In a recent survey, more than 85 percent said they believe campaign contributions influence the decisions of Illinois judges. Nearly 29 percent said campaign contributions have "a lot" of influence on the decisions of judges; 31.6 percent answered "quite a bit;" and 25.6 percent said contributors have "some" influence. Only 2 percent believe campaign contributions have no influence.

Similar numbers of people believe that political party leaders and special interest groups influence judicial decisions.

Nearly 62 percent support a voluntary system of public campaign financing that would use taxpayer funds to replace large campaign contributions to candidates for the Illinois Supreme Court.

The independent poll was commissioned by the non-partisan Illinois Campaign for Political Reform (ICPR). The poll surveyed public opinion about the independence of the state's judiciary and the conduct of judicial election campaigns.

"Clearly, voters in Illinois are not satisfied with the way we elect judges, and they want to see some changes," said former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, Chair of the ICPR. "There is considerable support for banning large campaign contributions by special interests, devising a system of public financing of Illinois Supreme Court races and publishing a voters' guide to help the public learn more about judicial elections and candidates."

"Although there hasn't even been an organized effort to educate voters about judicial public financing, voters already like the idea," said Cindi Canary, ICPR Director. "We can expect opposition from the special interests whose big contributions are fueling supreme court campaigns, but we hope the General Assembly will listen to the voters."

Simon and the ICPR, other civic groups, bar associations and interested legislators are developing a legislative proposal to create a system of voluntary public financing of state supreme court elections.

"In recent years, the amount of money spent on supreme court races in Illinois and other states has exploded and the tenor of campaign debates have begun to resemble the knock down, drag out fights we have come to expect in legislative contests," Canary said. "In Illinois, a supreme court candidate a few years ago would have had a hard time raising more than $100,000, but today the winners are spending more than $1 million. As a result, the public is losing confidence in the independence of the judicial branch.

Complete poll results can be found at the ICPR web site (www.ilcampaign.org). The telephone survey of 830 registered voters was conducted by the Survey Research Office of the Institute for Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Springfield with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percent.

Some other poll results follow:

Nearly 67 percent said that the cost of running for the Illinois Supreme Court have become too expensive, and 58.5 percent believe the high cost often has stopped some people with the potential to be good judges from running for the judiciary.
Judicial elections continue to be more popular than the appointment process, but 75.4 percent favor limits on the size of campaign contributions to judicial candidates.
When asked how much the time you can trust the Illinois Supreme Court to do what is right, 11.5 percent said "just about always," 46.9 percent said "most of the time, and 23.5 percent said "some of the time." The Supreme Court scored higher on the trust question than the federal government, local government and state government in general.
Only 3.6 percent of those polled rated the Illinois court system as "excellent." Thirty-eight percent give it a "good" rating, and 31 percent rate it as "poor." Nearly 9 percent rate it "very poor."
Most voters (78 percent) said they don't have enough information about supreme court candidates, and 79 percent believe the state should provide an objective voters' guide about candidates prior to each election.
Nearly 8 of 10 voters (78.5 percent) prefer that judges be selected by election rather than an appointment process, but 70 percent would like to see candidates run without party labels. Illinois judges are selected by partisan elections.