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John Nichols: A court contest contrast in Assembly race

John Nichols  —  8/20/2008 8:08 am

When the Democratic candidates for the open 81st District Assembly seat debated last week, a pair of the contenders took opposing positions on a fundamental democracy issue.

Tim Kiefer, an assistant district attorney, proposed to deny the voters of Wisconsin a say in choosing Supreme Court justices. Kiefer supports so-called "merit selection" of judges -- a system that would have an elite panel appointed by the governor select "a list of candidates" from which the governor would then name justices.

This is a recipe for old-fashioned cronyism being advanced by insiders who have no taste for honest reform. After two messy Supreme Court elections, the insiders say the cure for what ails the process is to do away with democracy.

A better approach came from Justin Sargent, who highlighted his support for the proposed Impartial Justice Act. That plan would clean up court contests by establishing a system of full public financing of state Supreme Court elections. Sargent is the right kind of reformer -- instead of responding to special-interest meddling in elections by proposing as Kiefer does to diminish democracy, he seeks to make the changes that will renew democracy.

John Nichols is associate editor of The Capital Times.

John Nichols  —  8/20/2008 8:08 am