Brennan Center for Justice

For Immediate Release                                                     

Contacts:
James Sample, Brennan Center for Justice, 212-992-8648
james.sample@nyu.edu
Charles W. Hall, Justice at Stake, 202-588-9454
chall@justiceatstake.org

Alabama and Michigan Lead Nation's Supreme Court Advertising

New
York, NY – Television
advertisements in two states—Alabama and Michigan—accounted for three quarters of all spending on
television advertising last week in state Supreme Court elections nationwide, according
to an analysis by the Brennan
Center at NYU School of
Law.  In Alabama two Supreme Court candidates and one
interest group spent a total of $479,134 on television advertisements between
October 11 and 17.  During that time, one
candidate and one interest group in Michigan
combined spent $398,428 on ads. 
Nationwide, candidates and interest groups spent a total of $1,164,101
during the period.

In Alabama,
advertising in the campaign between Judge Deborah Bell Paseur and Judge Greg
Shaw became increasingly negative.  Since
the beginning of the campaign, Judge Paseur has spent $967,801, Judge Shaw has
spent $565,838, and the Center for Individual Freedom, an Alexandria, Virginia
based interest group supporting Judge Shaw, has spent $249,277 on television
advertising.

"Unfortunately, when a state that ranks last in the nation
in spending on legal services, is nonetheless the vanguard of expensive
judicial elections, it creates a perception of two systems of justice, one for
the moneyed interests, and one for everyone else," said James Sample, counsel
at the Brennan Center.

The Center for Individual Freedom ad has become a heated
issue in the Alabama
race. According to a Birmingham
Press-Register article, Pasueur criticized the ad, calling the center "a
shadowy Washington
group."  

In Michigan,
between October 11 and 17, the Chamber of Commerce spent $300,825 on television
advertising to support the re-election of Chief Justice Cliff Taylor, and Chief
Justice Taylor himself spent $97,603.  In
2006, the Chamber of Commerce spent $709,058 on television advertisements
supporting one candidate, more than seven times the $97,871 she herself spent.

"Independent ads like the Chamber's have played a growing
role in Supreme Court elections," said Charlie Hall, a spokesman for the
Justice at Stake Campaign in Washington.
"They enable donors to avoid campaign disclosure laws that apply to candidates,
and they are election ads in everything but name."

Last week Supreme Court television advertisements ran in Texas and North
Carolina for the first time this campaign
season.  In Texas, Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson began
running an advertisement for re-election, and in North Carolina Justice Bob
Edmunds sponsored the first advertisement in the state.  Advertising also ran in West
Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio.

Methodology

The Brennan
Center's analyses of
television advertising in state Supreme Court elections use data obtained from
a commercial firm, TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group
("CMAG"), which records each ad via satellite. 
CMAG provides information about the location, dates, frequency, and
estimated costs of each ad, as well as storyboards. Cost estimates are refined
over time and do not include the costs of design and production.  As a result, cost estimates substantially
understate the actual cost of advertising.

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