Program Protects N.C. Courts from Negative National Trend

Across the nation, state judicial races are proving to be a new battleground for competing special interests looking to craft courts favorable to their side.

A new report from the Justice at Stake Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan organization that monitors court contests across the country, reveals a troubling trend of special-interest spending on the rise and more nasty attack ads hitting the airwaves in state supreme court races.

Average television spending in supreme court campaigns per state set a new record at $1.6 million in 2006, while the national median for fundraising in these contests reached a record high at $243,910, according to the study. 

“The responsibility for protecting the courts is shared by all branches of government,” said James Sample, co-author of the report. “Legislative and executive leaders ought to seriously consider public financing of judicial campaigns.”

The findings highlight a stark contrast between the tone of North Carolina’s judicial races and those in other parts of the country. 

Despite witnessing some spending by an independent group late in the 2006 campaign, the Tar Heel State has been spared much of the negative advertising and special-interest meddling seen elsewhere, thanks in large part to the Public Campaign Fund, an innovative system of public financing for N.C. Supreme Court and N.C. Court of Appeals elections, which will be used for its third election cycle in 2008.

In the two elections where the Public Campaign Fund has been available, 20 of the state’s 28 appellate-level candidates have opted into the program, with nine of the 11 winners taking part. At the same time, public funds have replaced special-interest money as the leading source of financing for these races. North Carolina judicial candidates have seen the percentage of the funds they receive from attorneys, business, labor and political parties drop in these previous two elections.

A June study commissioned by the nonpartisan N.C. Center for Voter Education finds that 69 percent of North Carolina voters support the state’s judicial public financing program.

North Carolina has not entirely avoided the taint of special-interest spending. Last year, a group calling itself FairJudges.Net injected private cash into the state’s Supreme Court elections, launching an ad touting a slate of “fair judges” just days before voters went to the polls. 

While the move exposed some flaws in the state’s program, 527-group spending was much lower in North Carolina than compared to other parts of the country.  Named for the section of the IRS code granting them their tax status, 527 groups have risen in prominence in recent elections as they have been able to skirt many of the regulations governing political action committees, parties and candidates.

State lawmakers moved during this legislative session to strengthen the Public Campaign Fund against such special-interest maneuvering. A measure approved in the General Assembly improves how publicly financed candidates, when attacked by special interest groups, can qualify for matching funds.

“Though a group seeking to influence last year’s state Supreme Court elections was able to exploit some loopholes in the system, candidates participating in the Public Campaign Fund still received more money to run their campaigns than they would have if they had to raise it from private special interests,” said Chris Heagarty, executive director of the N.C. Center for Voter Education, pointing to campaign spending data over the past 10 years. “We’ll never be able to completely eliminate the specter of special-interest money in elections, but by giving candidates more resources than they otherwise would have had, we can give them a fighting chance to combat it, especially with the new changes lawmakers enacted this year.”

In addition to offering judicial candidates an alternative to private cash and the means to defend themselves against special-interest attacks, the Public Campaign Fund produces a voter guide featuring all of the candidates for the N.C. Supreme Court and N.C. Court of Appeals. The guide was mailed to over 4 million homes across the state in the weeks leading up to Election Day in 2006.

More information on North Carolina’s Public Campaign Fund is available online at www.ncjudges.org.