Saturday, June 15th, 2013
Stephan: Yet another chapter in the corruption of all our governmental institutions. The same process by which the U.S. Congress was suborned, and neutered, is now playing out at the State level, particularly in the Red value states.
Notice the prominence in this report of North Carolina, which I see as a laboratory state for Red Values. This is the state whose legislature passed a bill demanding no consideration of climate change, in spite of the state's vulnerability. All the Theocratic Rights' fantasies are playing out in North Carolina, as well as Mississippi, Louisiana -- the usual list.
One effect of the corruption of state judiciaries is that it will further the Great Schism Trend, even as it degrades one of the pillars of our democracy -- the judiciary. Read this remembering the piece I did in Friday's edition on the bias for donors that arises in judicial decisions, and correlates with donations. It almost goes without saying that this is largely financed by the Koch brothers and their ilk, and is being carried out through the auspices of the Republican Party.
You need to be on the lookout for this happening in your state, and organize against it. Otherwise our judicial system will be forever compromised. We are in parlous times. Choices are being made now that will shape the trajectories of the states and the country as a whole, for generations.
Sam Ervin IV must have been feeling pretty good about his chances of winning a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court last fall.
He had name recognition-his grandfather was the legendary senator who led the Watergate investigation-and a poll released less than a week before Election Day showed him leading his opponent, incumbent Justice Paul Newby by 6 points, 38-32.
But on the Friday before the election, ‘Justice for All NC’-an independent political committee whose funding came mostly from out of state-dropped a TV ad depicting a scowling Ervin and asking: ‘Sam Ervin. Can we trust him to be a fair judge?’
Ervin lost the race by 4 points, 52 percent to 48 percent.
‘As far as I know,’ says Ervin, ‘there had never been an attack ad in a North Carolina judicial race.’
North Carolina’s supreme court election was arguably decided by groups like Justice for All-secretive nonprofits, unaffiliated with a candidate, whose money came from out of state.
Independent groups accounted for at least $2.59 million in spending to influence North Carolinians’ supreme court vote with more than half the total ultimately coming from groups outside the state, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis.
And North Carolina is not alone.
The Center for […]
