Background for Reporters Covering Local Judicial Races
Who Contributes to Judicial Campaigns? Money Records Set!

Sacramento - Research in local judicial races by the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) shows that on the average:

• 44% of the election funding total is in the form of loans and contributions from the candidates themselves.

• Looking at the non-candidate funding, attorneys are contributing nearly 40% while an equal amount comes from a mixed group that includes other judges, businesses, labor organizations, law enforcement, and other broad- based organizations.

• Money from plaintiffs' trial lawyers makes up about 30% of the total lawyer contributions.

• The source of about 20% of the non-candidate contributions cannot be identified either because contributors are not required to identify themselves because their contributions were less than $100 or because of missing reports.

This breakdown was developed from analysis of contributions in 1998 and 2000 judicial elections. The association plans to release final data on judicial campaign contributions for 1998-2000 early in 2001. Specific information on the preliminary findings is available at www.cjac.org. Also there is the entire study done on 1994 and 1996 judicial elections.

The biggest spending for Tuesday's election appears to be in a race for a superior court judge seat in Sacramento County where attorney Trena Burger led all contenders across the state with $559,000 reported received through September 30. Her opponent, deputy district attorney Don Steed, reported $102,000 in contributions for a record setting total of $661,000.

The prior record for superior court campaign spending identified by CJAC was a 1994 Los Angeles County race in which John Moriarity and Terry Friedman raised a combined total of $497,000.

"This is a real eye-opener when you consider it alongside state supreme court campaigns in some eastern states where justices run in contested, partisan elections," noted Sullivan. "For example, we have a report that in Illinois two candidates fighting for a seat on the state supreme court last spring spent $1 million each. Compared with many states, California's system for selecting and electing judges generally wins high marks," he said. "Nevertheless, with the growing amounts of money spent in judicial elections, it is important that voters stay aware of the size and source of the money raised by candidates for seats on our courts."

The Civil Justice Association of California is a coalition of citizens, taxpayers, businesses, local governments, professionals, manufacturers, financial institutions, insurers, and medical organizations.