FORMER GOV. QUIE TO SPEAK ON RISING THREAT TO JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE

Minnesota is under growing pressure to admit partisan and special interest politics into judicial races. Governor Al Quie will address this threat, and propose a solution, on Saturday, Sept. 27th, at 10:30 a.m., in a speech to the Northfield-Cannon Falls League of Women Voters. Gov. Quie will speak in Viking Theater, Buntrock Commons, on the St. Olaf campus. The LWV business meeting will begin at 9:15. St. Olaf and Carleton students and other area residents who attend Gov. Quie’s talk are welcome to come for refreshments at 10 a.m.
Minnesota has historically kept politics out of judicial races. But in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court in the White decision declared the ethical standards governing Minnesota judicial elections unconstitutional. Candidates for Minnesota judgeships are now allowed to make promises to and solicit campaign contributions from special interest groups and political parties. Gov. Quie said, “Judicial campaigns around the country are quickly transforming into high-stakes political campaigns, complete with special interest group endorsements and negative advertising.”
Wisconsin voters have witnessed this change firsthand in two recent state Supreme Court races that cost nearly $10 million. In their 2008 election a small-town trial judge, with what the May 25, 2008, New York Times described as “thin” credentials, ran a television advertisement falsely suggesting that his opponent, the only black justice on the Supreme Court, had helped free a black rapist. The challenger won with 51 per cent of the votes.
Gov. Quie is well-known locally. He grew up on a farm near Dennison and graduated from St. Olaf. He was the First District Congressional Representative for 20 years and was elected Governor of Minnesota in 1979. He currently heads Minnesotans for Impartial Courts. MIC describes itself as a nonprofit organization which includes “concerned citizens from all walks of life and political persuasion -- people from the legal community, education, labor and business -- who want to keep Minnesota’s courts independent and accountable by keeping special interest, partisan consideration, and campaign contributions from influencing the selection and retention of Minnesota’s judges.” For further information about MIC go to www.impartialcourts.org .
For more information about the Sept. 27th meeting or the League of Women Voters, call Eve Webster (645-5412) or go to www.lwvnorthfieldmn.org .