Litigation

Editorial: ?Bring Gavel Down on Judicial Elections?

By Peter Hardin

The Toledo Blade editorial board has reacted to new rules for judicial campaigns, issued by the Ohio Supreme Court, with a plea to end judicial elections.

The state Supreme Court revised the rules to permit judicial candidates to advertise their political party affiliations and to allow candidates to directly solicit campaign contributions in certain circumstances (see Gavel Grab). Here is the conclusion of the Blade’s editorial:

“It’s long past time to bring the gavel down on judicial elections. It’s simply not reasonable to expect judges to act like politicians during elections, but not end up beholden to the party leaders and political donors who put them on the bench.

“But as long as that’s the system in Ohio, the more information voters have, the better off they’ll be.”

In the Cleveland News-Herald, an editorial called lifting the political affiliation ban a “reasonable decision.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on August 16, 2010 (boomark / email).