Jeremy Hutchinson
LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas lawmakers appeared split Wednesday on what changes, if any, are needed to how justices are chosen after conservative groups overwhelmed the state with television ads and mailers in two state Supreme Court races this year.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee debated proposals to end the popular election of Supreme Court justices and require disclosure from outside groups. Lawmakers are floating both ideas after outside groups and candidates spent more than $1.3 million on television ads in the March 1 election for two state Supreme Court seats, more than doubling the record for such spending in a judicial election in Arkansas.
Republican Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, the panel’s chairman, has said he wants to gauge whether there’s support to put merit selection of justices on the ballot this fall.
“I am not satisfied with the status quo,” Hutchinson said.
Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is the senator’s uncle, has said he thinks lawmakers should look at having justices appointed rather than elected. The proposal, however, faces opposition from judges and some lawmakers who say voters should have a say on who serves on the state’s highest court.
“The people don’t get it right sometimes according to me, but they will get it right more than they will get it wrong,” Republican Sen. Terry Rice said.
Democratic Rep. Clarke Tucker urged lawmakers to look at his proposal to require outside groups that get involved in campaigns to disclose their spending and donors with the state. Judicial Crisis Network, which had spent heavily in the chief justice race, is a nonprofit group and not required by federal law to disclose its donors.
Tucker showed the panel a television ad JCN had aired statewide targeting Justice Courtney Goodson, who lost her bid for the chief justice post against Judge Dan Kemp.
“The groups that spend dark money, they all have an agenda. There’s no question about that. I don’t really think there’s a debate about that,” Tucker said. “That’s why the people of Arkansas have a right to know what their agenda is about the people they’re electing.”
Representatives from Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group that has targeted lawmakers on issues such as the state’s Medicaid expansion, criticized the disclosure proposal.
“This is a discussion supposedly focused on campaign finance reform, but in reality this is a discussion about restricting the speech of private charitable organizations,” David Ray, the group’s state director, told the committee.
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