CHICAGO, Illinois - November 2, 2010 - Campaign donations to members of Congress from secret donors and foreign investors are grabbing headlines this election season.
But in a new twist in judicial elections this year, business groups are targeting judges over single-issue rulings - from overturning medical malpractice limits to upholding homosexual marriage - in retention races that were originally designed to limit the influence of special interest money.
If this exploitation of retention elections is successful, it could lead to a whole new tsunami of special interest spending in judicial races across the nation, according to a nonpartisan partnership that works to protect courts from special-interest influence.
In retention elections, judges seeking another term on the bench have no opponent but instead face a yes-or-no vote on the statewide ballot. Historically, such elections usually receive little funding and the overwhelming majority of judges are reinstated unless they've had conspicuously egregious records.
In Illinois, no sitting state Supreme Court justice has ever lost a retention election.