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Political groups fight for control of supreme courts across U.S.

Washington justice target of fierce big-money effort

By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press
Published: November 1, 2016, 8:40pm

SEATTLE — Wealthy powerbrokers. Special interest groups. Millions of dollars pouring in to elect conservatives or liberals.

It sounds like a typical election-year contest for Congress or a state legislature, but it’s actually a high-stakes battle for institutions that were once considered above politics: state supreme courts. Political groups view control of the high courts as essential to either defending or thwarting state laws. And they are more and more willing to spend big to gain the advantage.

So far in the current election cycle, a record $14 million in independent money has been spent on television advertisements for state supreme court seats, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. That represents about half of all the money spent on the races, including the amount spent by the candidates themselves.

The final tally, which will not be known until after Election Day, is sure to be much higher and will probably shatter the previous outside spending record of $13.5 million, set in the 2011-12 election cycle.

“State supreme court elections have become increasingly high-cost and politicized,” said Alicia Bannon, senior counsel at the Brennan Center. “Special interests have been putting a lot of money into those races, trying to shape who sits on the courts and ultimately the decisions the courts are making.”

Not including uncontested races, some 52 seats in 27 states are in play Nov. 8, according to the Brennan Center’s tally.

In Washington state, the Supreme Court contest involves some of the world’s wealthiest people. Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen and the company’s former chief executive, Steve Ballmer, have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to unseat Justice Charles Wiggins, who is seeking his second six-year term.

Wiggins became a target after he joined the majority in striking down a state law that allowed public funding of charter schools and an anti-tax measure that had been approved by voters. His opponents have contributed $900,000 just since mid-October, 60 percent of that coming from Gates, Ballmer and Allen’s company, Vulcan Inc.

A political action committee called Judicial Integrity Washington has aired advertisements in the last two weeks attacking Wiggins as soft on crime. That PAC is backed by $350,000 from three other wealthy Washington executives — investor Ken Fisher of Camas, developer Kemper Freeman and Seattle Mariners Chief Executive John Stanton.

“I expected there might be some independent spending, but I didn’t expect it to be of that magnitude,” Wiggins said.

The Republican State Leadership Committee is dedicating $4 million to try to elect conservative jurists in many states. Group President Matt Walter said the goal is to counter years of judicial campaign spending by trial lawyers and unions.

“We saw a need to provide a balanced flow of information to the voters,” he said.

Some of the spending is being used to paint justices as soft on crime even when other issues — such as school funding — seem to be more significant drivers in the race.

That sort of advertising is problematic in judicial races because it can affect how courts make decisions, said Joanna Shepherd, who teaches law at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta.

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