judicial public financing
June 24, 2016 -
The political donor class is overwhelmingly white, male, older and wealthy, and policies reflect their interests, worsening inequality. New reports show how public campaign financing diversifies contributors and helps elect officials who better represent constituents' interests, leading to policies that promote equity.
May 13, 2016 -
Despite a public financing program and an election recently changed to be nonpartisan, West Virginia's recent state Supreme Court race was flooded with outside money. Independent groups spent over $3.5 million, and the biggest beneficiary won by a landslide.
July 10, 2015 -
Wealthy special interests are increasingly spending money to influence state judicial races, threatening the independence of judges and damaging public confidence in the integrity of the courts.
May 21, 2015 -
Nine states, four of them in the South, hold judicial elections but don't ban judges from seeking campaign cash from people that could appear before them. Following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Florida case upholding such bans, judicial watchdogs are working to change the law in these outlier states.
November 20, 2014 -
A study by the Center for American Progress looked at the success rates of law firms arguing cases before North Carolina's highest court and compared them to the firms' contributions to justices' campaigns. The findings underscore concerns about impartiality in a court system flooded in political money since the end of the state's public financing program for judicial races.
October 31, 2014 -
In the first year since the demise of the state's judicial public financing program, candidate fundraising and outside spending have pushed the cost of North Carolina court elections to a record high.
October 23, 2014 -
Over the past 15 years, North Carolina's high court has sided against the environment in every major environmental law case it's considered, a new study finds. And with the court's three Democrats facing tough re-election challenges, the odds could become even more stacked.
