Next Supreme Court Race Could Be Just as Nasty, Observers Fear

Charleston Daily Mail, Nov. 4, 2004

Mud is likely to continue flying in future West Virginia court races now that attorney Brent Benjamin has knocked off incumbent Justice Warren McGraw in a race that featured millions in spending and harsh allegations, experts said.

The independent group And for the Sake of the Kids targeted McGraw…Massey Energy chief Don Blankenship bankrolled an estimated $3.5 million to pay for the advertisements, direct mailing and a campaign of recorded telephone calls to potential voters.

…Charleston attorney Marvin Masters suggested that more companies are likely to follow Blankenship’s example of heavy spending in court races.

"They would rather spend $10 million to control the Supreme Court than $100 million for people that they’ve defrauded," Masters said. "It’s happening across the country. It’s tobacco companies, insurance companies, big businesses that get sued, that commit fraud."

…Neely blamed a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that means judicial races don’t have to be governed by the canon of judicial ethics.

"It’s an absolute disaster for the judiciary, and I don’t know how we go about fixing it," he said. "It’s a very, very worrisome problem. These ads work and this kind of campaign works. Now every seat on the Supreme Court is for sale."