Litigation

AL Justice Hits Rival on Campaign Spending

By Peter Hardin

An Alabama Supreme Court justice has accused his rival in a Republican primary contest of hypocrisy for deploring the cost of judicial elections, then pumping massive sums into last-minute TV advertising.

The target of the attack, trial lawyer Tracy Cary (right-hand photo), states on his campaign Web site, “I will not participate in the outlandish fund-raising of past judicial campaigns. This is only a start but I want to do my part to help restore public confidence in our courts.”

The campaign manager for incumbent Justice Mike Bolin (left-hand photo) said Cary bought $650,000 in ads, according to a Tuscaloosa News article, shortly after filing a public report listing no campaign contributions. Justice Bolin and Cary are competing in a GOP primary.

The campaign manager, Scott Stone, accused Cary of hypocrisy. Stone also contended Cary put off taking campaign donations, until after the passage of a reporting deadline, to avoid disclosing his donors’ identities.

Cary refused to confirm for the newspaper the cost of his campaign’s advertising purchases, and he declined to disclose the money sources.

He said in a statement that his initial approach, rejecting political action committee money, was naive and he was engaged in a contest with a contest with a well-funded, incumbent foe.

“I needed TV ads and discovered that funding them would not be possible if I continued to accept donations only from friends and family,” Cary said. “Judicial campaigns in Alabama are outrageously expensive.”

Here is an excerpt from Cary’s campaign Web site about judicial election spending in Alabama:

“Something is wrong when a poor state like Alabama spends more money on judicial elections than almost every other state in the nation. Spending multiple millions of dollars to elect one judge for one seat creates the perception that justice is for sale to the highest bidder. Since 1993, candidates for Alabama Supreme Court seats have raised more than $50 million.

“However, in order to begin to repair the damage done to the reputation of our courts, I promise my campaign will be different.”

In a pre-primary campaign report, Justice Bolin reported  $44,183 in contributions. His campaign Web site is accessible here.

Alabama has had the nation’s costliest Supreme Court races since the early 1990s. You can learn more about them from Justice at Stake’s overview page about Alabama.

Full post as published by The Gavel on May 27, 2010 (boomark / email).