Gavel Grab

A pilot program for public financing of state Supreme Court elections in West Virginia won approval from the state House of Delegates on a 67-30 vote.

Proposed by Gov. Joe Manchin, the pilot plan is aimed at cleaning up elections where special interests can pump big sums into judicial campaigns too easily, the Herald-Dispatch reported.

“Money in politics is bad, but money in the judiciary is abhorrent to justice,” said Republican Patrick Lane. “Not only might it possibly influence somebody … but it is the appearance of impropriety that leads to the feeling of those participants in the court cases that they’re not getting a fair shake when they come before the judiciary.”

The legislation was introduced after an independent commission made recommendations on judicial reform (see Gavel Grab.) It would fund a pilot program for state Supreme Court elections in 2012.

A case from West Virginia before the U.S. Supreme Court thrust judicial elections there into the national limelight. The high court  in Caperton v. Massey required a West Virginia justice to step aside from hearing a case involving a coal company executive who spent $3 million to help the justice win election. Read more about Caperton in Gavel Grab, or read Justice at Stake’s amicus brief in the case.