Litigation

Election 2010: MI Justice Faces Attack Ad

By Peter Hardin

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyvXvRG_zUo

An air war is developing in Michigan’s Supreme Court elections, with Democrats targeting incumbent Justice Robert Young Jr., a Republican, as letting environmental polluters off the hook.

“Bob Young: Polluters Don’t pay. Michigan Taxpayers Do,” concludes a new TV attack ad that kicks off with images from the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion and headlines about a pipeline oil spill in Michigan.

It’s one of a series of sizzling TV ads that have aired in recent days  in judicial election contests. You can check them out by visiting the JAS Judicial Elections 2010 page. Here are excerpts from the combative ads:

• In Michigan, the Democrats’ ad slams Justice Young as having “overturned a 30-year-old law that held polluters accountable.” Citing an opinion survey, it says he was rated “worst judge on the Michigan Supreme Court.” Heavy spending has been predicted in two Supreme Court contests in Michigan (see Gavel Grab).
• “Take the ‘for sale’ sign off our court, and off our state,” urges Tom Edwards, a Democratic candidate for the Alabama Supreme Court, in a frontal attack on the high court’s integrity. Alabama leads the nation for the costliest state supreme court elections (see Gavel Grab). Edwards also confides that his best preparation for the high court was “divinity school.”
• Another Alabama ad tells voters the two “most senior Republican Supreme Court justices donated to Democrats who are running for the court…They have thought about it. Have you?” The ad comes from a group with the intriguing name of Alabamians for Conservative Leaders. It has received thousands of dollars in teachers’ union money and has given heavily to Democratic political action committees; learn more about the justices’ donations from Gavel Grab.
• In Illinois, Justice Thomas Kilbride declares in a campaign ad, “I’ve been attacked harshly, repeatedly, and falsely. I’m here to tell you flat out, these attacks are lies and distortions.” A narrator intones that the attacks have come from “a front group for the insurance industry and Wall Street, who would put profits first by outsourcing American jobs overseas.” You can read more about the costly and heated retention election from Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on October 21, 2010 (boomark / email).