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October 01, 2006
Campaign Contributions and State Courts
The New York Times has an extesive article regarding the role of campaign contributions from defendants in cases they were going to overhear.
read the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/us/01judges.html
The article is critical of Terrence O'Donnell (R) who is running for reelection against William O'Neill (D) who's capaign slogan is "No Money from Nobody"
I think my favorite quote from the article is this:
“I never felt so much like a hooker down by the bus station in any race I’ve ever been in as I did in a judicial race,” said Justice Paul E. Pfeifer, a Republican member of the Ohio Supreme Court.
To be fair, most justices from any party generally accepts money from PACs that are allied with groups interested in specific cases. It is interesting to see that O'Donnell rules in favor of contributors 91% of the time, unlike the 70% average of other justices. However, the question, as always, is are the PACs contirbuting to try and sway a judicial vote, or are they contributing to justices who are already favorable to their position?
What do you think?
Posted by ear14 at October 1, 2006 06:30 PM
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