There seems to be some “shock” about a 527 called FairJudges.net
that promoted some judicial candidates in the previous election.
This article provides a nice summary of the 527 issue in judicial elections.
The influence of this organization and future 527s should be expected, and it supports one of the arguments
that I made that public financing is pointless because it only limits
individual contributions and as a result the money will simply shift to
issue advocacy–which is a good thing. Instead of eliminating
this inherently flawed system, some groups and individuals will simply
try and restrict speech further (try and attack 527s, etc.).
From
the article: “Dick Taylor, CEO of the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers,
said that the potential for having independent groups, such as 527s,
involved in campaigns was a ?known ingredient? when the judicial
campaign finance law was enacted.”
He’s absolutely right.
If any shock should exist, it is that anyone could possibly believe
that 527s wouldn’t get involved in judicial elections.
However, what is interesting is that the Democratic Party was, in part,
behind Fairjudges.net–nothing wrong with that except public financing
was driven by Democrats in the legislature.
