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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 25, 2004
Illinois State Bar Association Launches Effort to Counter
Negative Campaigning in Supreme and Appellate Court Races
Collinsville, IL, August 25, 2004 - Concerned with the national trend of increasingly politicized judicial elections, the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) today announced that it has launched a statewide effort to monitor advertising and public statements being made in conjunction with campaigns for the Illinois Supreme Court and the Illinois Appellate Court.
In a news conference held in Collinsville, ISBA president Ole Bly Pace III, from Sterling, said that a new blue-ribbon committee - the Committee on Supreme and Appellate Court Election Campaign Tone and Conduct - has been formed. The committee is chaired by Thomas S. Johnson, an attorney from Rockford.
"We are seeing a trend around the country of judicial elections becoming highly politicized as special interests put large amounts of money, and try to inject their favorite issues, into judicial campaigns," Pace said. "Some of these elections have featured advertising that is damaging to the reputation of the court system and the judiciary."
"If this happens in Illinois, we will speak out forcefully, and we will encourage the candidates to join us, in countering these messages," Pace said. "Our citizens must be able to have confidence that they can turn to our courts and receive a fair hearing and justice. Ad campaigns that suggest judges are merely tools of interest groups help destroy confidence in our system of justice. Our system of justice cannot leave the impression that judicial decisions are based on political parties or particular interest groups."
The two candidates for Supreme Court in the 5th District, Republican Lloyd A. Karmeier and Democrat Gordon E. Maag, joined Pace and committee members at the news conference. The 5th District comprises the southernmost counties in Illinois. Also at the news conference were committee chair Thomas Johnson and members John Nickels, a retired Supreme Court justice from Maple Park, and Mary Schaafsma of Chicago, who works for the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
The only other contested election for supreme or appellate court on the November ballot is for Appellate Court in the 3rd District encompassing a large area of north-central Illinois.
As a first step, the candidates have been asked to sign a pledge regarding judicial campaign advertising. Among other things, the pledge states that candidates will not comment on pending court cases, and "will publicly disavow advertisements that impugn the dignity, integrity, or independence of a candidate … or which erode public trust and confidence in the dignity, integrity, or independence of the judiciary."
"Judicial elections are not like other elections because judges are not elected to represent a segment of the population or a particular viewpoint," Pace said. "Once elected, a judge's job is to fairly apply the law in all matters that come before the court."
Pace said the new committee will monitor campaign advertising and if it determines that a particular message adversely affects the reputation or integrity of the courts, the committee will notify the candidates. If the advertising comes from a candidate, ISBA may ask the candidate to withdraw the ad. If the source of the advertising is an outside interest group, the candidates may be asked to disavow the ad in a public statement. The ISBA committee may also make a public statement.
In addition to Johnson, Nickels, and Schaafsma, members of the new committee are: Thomas A. Clancy, a Chicago attorney who is vice chair of the committee; John A. Gorman, a federal magistrate judge and former appellate court justice in Peoria; Mary Lee Leahy, an attorney from Springfield; Lawrence X. Pusateri, a former appellate court justice from Chicago; Shari R. Rhode, an attorney from Carbondale; and Seymour Simon, a former justice of the Illinois Supreme Court from Chicago.
The 30,000-member Illinois State Bar Association, with offices in Springfield and Chicago, provides professional services to lawyers, and education and services to the public.