Illinois Mulls Public Financing of Elections
Fair Courts E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Patrick Yeagle
Source: Illinois Times
Date: December 8, 2011
Discussing the proposed creation of a statewide system to publicly fund elections in Illinois, Dr. Kent Redfield of the University of Illinois Springfield told the Illinois Times that while he does not think the proposal is likely to pass, he believes that public financing in judicial elections is especially critical to preserving judicial impartiality. According to Redfield, “[t]he more that you get private interests that are interested in the outcome of a judicial decision engaged in political campaigns, the more you’re going to call the independence of the judiciary into question, and that’s very corrosive. . . . If people don’t accept the legitimacy of the courts, the foundation of the whole system is gone.”