Litigation

MI Voters Bombarded by TV Attack Ads

By Peter Hardin

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPerCz2_ajo

Attack ads are bombarding voters  in Michigan, where a big-spending special interest group has launched TV ads critical of a Democratic state Supreme Court justice and a Democratic candidate.

A TV ad run by the Virginia-based Law Enforcement Alliance of America starts with stark black-and-white images of economic recession and unemployment. A narrator then says Judge Alton Davis, in these lean times, “issued a judicial order to create a gold plated pension plan for court employees.”

When some counties couldn’t afford it, Judge Davis “sued the taxpayers,” the ad continues. The narrator urges voters to tell him, “Judges should enforce the law, not order the creation of gold plated pensions.” Justice Davis was appointed to the high court this year and is being challenged by Judge Mary Beth Kelly, a Republican, and Bob Roddis, an Independent.

In a separate ad, a narrator scores Judge Denise Langford Morris as “soft on crime for rappers, lawyers, and child pornographers.” The narrator cites a case to back up each claim, including that of a special education teacher “convicted of child pornography crimes,” who was sentenced to “just one day in jail.” The narrator concludes, “Tell Judge Denise Langford Morris, ‘Get tough on convicted criminals.’”

The Law Enforcement Alliance of America was ranked as a notable top spender in judicial elections over the past decade, with more than $924,000 spent, by “The New Politics of Judicial Elections 2000-2009,” a report from the Justice at Stake Campaign and partner groups.

Gavel Grab reported earlier on an ad aired by Michigan Democrats that accused Justice Robert Young Jr., a Republican, of coddling environmental polluters. You can view the ads at Justice at Stake’s Judicial Elections 2010 page, where they have been compiled by JAS and a partner, the Brennan Center for Justice.

Full post as published by The Gavel on October 26, 2010 (boomark / email).