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An editorial in the Reading Eagle urges that it’s time to give Pennsylvanians the opportunity to vote on Merit Selection.   In a review of the report The New Politics of Judicial Selection, the editorial opens with these key points:

The Issue: A study reveals what we already knew: Judicial elections are becoming more expensive.

Our Opinion: It is time to switch to merit selection of Pennsylvania’s appellate court judges.

The editorial cites the rising costs of judicial elections and the increasing participation of special interests in those campaigns.  It agrees with the Professor James Sample (lead author of the New Politics report) that “‘We’re sort of playing with fire when you’re putting this much money into our courts.”

The editorial then reviews the pending Merit Selection legislation and notes that Governor Rendell and former Governors Ridge, Thornburgh and Schweiker recently joined together to support implementing Merit Selection for Pennsylvania’s appellate court judges.  The closing paragraphs are worth quoting in full:

According to a survey conducted by Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, 63 percent of the people in the commonwealth supported replacing the current system of electing judges, and 93 percent favored putting the issue to a statewide vote.

Nevertheless, the Legislature has been reluctant to even consider a change, which would take at least two years to implement because it would require a change in the state Constitution.

Why are the 253 members of the Legislature blocking the will of the people?

Despite growing support in the legislature and the dedication of our legislative sponsors, the Merit Selection legislation has not yet reached the floor of either House. We agree with the Reading Eagle that Pennsylvanians shouldn’t have to wait any more.

The Brennan Center for Justice has released its analysis of television advertising expenditures for the 2008 judicial election cycle, and the numbers are staggering:

Candidates, interest groups, and political parties combined to spend $19,861,269 on television advertisements in state Supreme Court elections nationwide this year. . . . That figure is up 24 percent from 2006, when they spent barely more than $16 million.

Big spenders this year included political parties, which really ramped up their spending from past election cycles: “Democratic and Republican state and local committees combined to spend $2,985,941 on television advertising, compared with only $644,989 in 2006.”

These are trends Pennsylvanians should be aware of as we enter our own judicial election season.  In the past, Pennsylvania has followed national trends of campaign spending, often setting new state records for fundraising and spending.  So, we can expect to see even more television ads come campaign season.

Why should we be concerned about all the money raised and spent for judicial election campaigns?

“The perception of judges as impartial umpires suffers, in particular, when outsized contributions and expenditures to judicial candidates are made by the very parties who then appear before those same candidates, once they are seated on the bench,” said James Sample, counsel at the Brennan Center.

Get ready, Pennsylvania — judicial election season is coming.