Before Republican legislative leaders gut North Carolina’s public financing program for appellate judicial races, they might want to consider the leanings of a core part of their constituency — Republican women.
A poll commissioned by the N.C. Center for Voter Education found that 67 percent of Republican women appreciate that the judicial financing program has helped more females get elected to the state’s top courts. A majority of GOP women voters — 57 percent — also say they’re less likely to vote for lawmakers who would end the public financing option — as looks increasingly likely — and open up the campaign fund spigot in judicial elections.
The poll was conducted by the Tarrance Group, which is often used by Republican candidates and Republican-leaning groups. It follows an earlier Center for Voter Education poll which found that 68 percent of N.C. voters favor the judicial public financing program — with support almost equal between Republicans (67 percent) and Democrats (69 percent).
When the public campaign fund law took effect in 2004, almost a decade ago, one of the goals was to increase the diversity of judicial candidates, while minimizing the apparent conflicts of interest that can arise when judicial candidates (including sitting judges) accept donations from individuals or groups that may have business before the court. Under the law, candidates qualify for funds by raising small donations from hundreds of donors and agreeing to accept fundraising limits. Since its implementation, 80 percent of N.C. Supreme Court and Court of Appeals candidates have qualified for public funds — and the makeup of those benches is more diverse than in years past.
Recently, two prominent West Virginia Republicans — former W.Va. Supreme Court of Appeals Justice John F. McCuskey and his son, state House Delegate John B. McCuskey — traveled to Raleigh to urge legislators to preserve the public financing program. They talked about the scandal that erupted in their state when an appeals court judge accepted a $3 million donation from an energy company executive — and then cast the deciding vote in overturning a civil verdict against the company. In the wake of that scandal, West Virginia modeled its own public financing law after the mechanism now under attack here.
Public funding for judicial elections has helped candidates who otherwise couldn’t have mounted successful runs. In the process, it also has helped keep the taint of big-money politics out of statewide judicial contests. Republican legislators shouldn’t ignore that track record — or the support the law has among voters of both parties.