Speakers at a forum held Tuesday night at the UW-Madison Law School weighed the different options for reforming the way Wisconsin selects its Supreme Court justices.
Panel members included state Supreme Court Justices Patrick Crooks and Ann Walsh Bradley, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Executive Director Mike McCabe and Scott Milfred, the editorial page editor for the Wisconsin State Journal.
They expressed concern over the growing influence of spending by outside interest groups and the increasing partisanship of judicial elections.
Speakers were split over the fairest way for Wisconsin to select justices. The state currently elects justices through nonpartisan elections.
Crooks said he supports continuing with judicial elections, but there is a need for increased public financing of these campaigns and disclosure of contributions from outside groups.
McCabe also voiced support of judicial elections, but said the races are becoming more overtly"" partisan and campaign contribution lists for judicial candidates look very similar to those of partisan candidates for office.
""We are at risk of being in a situation where we will have nonpartisan Supreme Court races in name only,"" he said.
He said the last two state Supreme Court races were ""unrelentingly trashy"" and filled with misleading or untruthful messages from interest groups that do not have to disclose their sources of funding.
Milfred, however, said he supports merit selection of judges over elections, saying the governor has actually appointed 33 of the last 50 Supreme Court justices.
According to Milfred, the majority of the public currently believes elected justices' decisions are swayed by campaign contributions, but they would have more trust in merit-appointed justices.
With the most recent Supreme Court election drawing only a 19 percent voter turnout, Crooks said there is a need to encourage voting in these elections.
""Frankly 19 percent is something we should all be ashamed of,"" Crooks said.
Bradley said she hopes lawmakers will address the issue of judicial election reform.
""The problem is not a lack of ideas, rather it is a lack of leadership and it is a lack of political will to bring about the necessary reforms,"" Bradley said.
