judgesonmerit.org

“The explosion of campaign cash in judicial elections has led citizens to doubt whether judges can be impartial. Every litigant — regardless of wealth or power — is supposed to be equal in the eyes of the law. But this principle is less true with each passing judicial election.”

USA Today took a look at the staggering amount of spending that dominated judicial races around the nation. While the amount of money spent was extravagant, that’s not the truly alarming part. The distressing thing about these

contributions is where they’re coming from. Special interest spending has long dominated legislative and executive elections in the United States, but now those interests are starting to take on a new frontier — the judiciary. More than half of the money spent this year came from special interest groups entirely outside of candidate campaigns. Even worse, some of these groups are entirely outside of the states

where elections were held.

With our own 2013 judicial elections looming on the horizon, Pennsylvania needs to take a cold, hard look at other races around the nation and decide if the Commonwealth can afford the price of special interest spending. We don’t need special interests pouring money into Pennsylvania judicial elections to push their agendas and poison the public perception of our bench. It’s time to reclaim our courts. Pennsylvania is the birthplace of independence, and we need to put politics aside to return to a judiciary that guarantees liberty and justice for all.

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