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The Brennan Center for Justice has released its analysis of television advertising expenditures for the 2008 judicial election cycle, and the numbers are staggering:

Candidates, interest groups, and political parties combined to spend $19,861,269 on television advertisements in state Supreme Court elections nationwide this year. . . . That figure is up 24 percent from 2006, when they spent barely more than $16 million.

Big spenders this year included political parties, which really ramped up their spending from past election cycles: “Democratic and Republican state and local committees combined to spend $2,985,941 on television advertising, compared with only $644,989 in 2006.”

These are trends Pennsylvanians should be aware of as we enter our own judicial election season.  In the past, Pennsylvania has followed national trends of campaign spending, often setting new state records for fundraising and spending.  So, we can expect to see even more television ads come campaign season.

Why should we be concerned about all the money raised and spent for judicial election campaigns?

“The perception of judges as impartial umpires suffers, in particular, when outsized contributions and expenditures to judicial candidates are made by the very parties who then appear before those same candidates, once they are seated on the bench,” said James Sample, counsel at the Brennan Center.

Get ready, Pennsylvania — judicial election season is coming.

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