Dozens of state Supreme Court seats up for grabs in November

Contact: Sandy Adkins
Communications Specialist
National Center for State Courts
757.259.1515

Dozens of state Supreme Court seats up for grabs in November

Williamsburg, Va. (Sept. 23, 2010) — On Nov. 2, 67 judicial elections for state Supreme Court seats will take place across 30 states. Of those elections, 10 will involve sitting chief justices.

In recent years, judicial elections have become more costly and controversial. According to a recent report from the Justice at Stake Campaign, total candidate spending increased from $83.3 million in the 1990s to $206.9 million between 2000 and 2009. To track the trend of using the Internet as a judicial-campaign tool, the National Center for State Courts has launched a YouTube channel featuring a collection of ads, speeches, debates, and news stories about state Supreme Court elections. The channel, which does not endorse any position or candidate, currently features more than 200 videos.

Judicial selection methods vary widely from state to state, but 38 states use some form of election to select or retain members of their highest courts. Nonpartisan elections take place in states where a party label does not appear on the ballot next to the name of the judicial candidate. Partisan elections, where the party label does appear on the ballot, are less common, but widely used across several Southern states. Retention elections — in which an incumbent is on the ballot, but a challenger is not — merely require voters to approve or reject the sitting judge.

The following tables, which are broken down by type of election, outline all of the upcoming elections for state Supreme Court seats.

Nonpartisan elections — 15 seats

State	Incumbent	Challenger(s)
Arkansas	Annabelle Clinton Imber (not running)	Tim Fox Karen Baker
Georgia	David Nahmias	Matt Wilson Tammy Lynn Adkins
Kentucky	Daniel Venters	unopposed
Minnesota	Helen Meyer	Greg Wersal
Minnesota	Christopher Dietzen	unopposed
Minnesota	Alan Page	Tim Tingelstad
Mississippi	Jess Dickinson	unopposed
Montana	William Leaphart (not running)	Nels Swandal Beth Baker
Nevada	James Hardesty	unopposed
Nevada	Chief Justice Ron Parraguirre	unopposed
North Carolina	Edward Brady (not running)	Barbara Jackson Robert Hunter
North Dakota	Carol Ronning Kapsner	unopposed
Washington	Chief Justice Barbara Madsen	unopposed
Washington	Richard Sanders	Charlie Wiggins Bryan Chushcoff
Washington	James Johnson	Stan Rumbaugh

Partisan elections — 16 seats

State	Incumbent	Challenger(s)
Alabama	Patricia Smith (R, not running)	Kelli Wise (R) Rhonda Chambers (D)
Alabama	Michael Bolin (R)	Tom Edwards (D)
Alabama	Tom Parker (R)	Mac Parsons (D)
Louisiana	Bernette Johnson (D)	unopposed
Michigan*	Alton Thomas Davis (D) Robert Young (R)	Mary Beth Kelly (R) Denise Langford Morris (D) Bob Roddis (L)
Ohio*	Chief Justice Eric Brown (D)	Maureen O'Connor (R)
Ohio*	Judith Ann Lanzinger (R)	Mary Jane Trapp (D)
Ohio*	Paul Pfeifer (R)	unopposed
Texas Supreme Court	Paul Green (R)	William Moody (D) Tom Oxford (L)
Texas Supreme Court	Eva Guzman (R)	Blake Bailey (D) Jack Armstrong (L)
Texas Supreme Court	Debra Lehrmann (R)	Jim Sharp (D) William Bryan Strange (L)
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals	Lawrence Meyers (R)	unopposed
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals	Cheryle Johnson (R)	unopposed
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals	Michael Keasler (R)	Keith Hampton (D)
West Virginia	Thomas E. McHugh (D)	John Yoder (R)

*Elections to the Michigan and Ohio Supreme Courts are nominally nonpartisan, however,
Michigan uses a party convention system to pick its nominees and Ohio uses party primaries.
Accordingly they are classified here as partisan elections. In Michigan, there are five candidates
vying for two seats. The top two vote-getters will be elected to the court.

Retention elections — 37 seats

State	Candidate
Alaska	Dana Fabe
Arizona	Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch
California	Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye
California	Ming Chin
California	Carlos Moreno
Colorado	Michael Bender
Colorado	Alex Martinez
Colorado	Nancy Rice
Florida	Chief Justice Charles Canady
Florida	Rickey Polston
Florida	Jorge Labarga
Florida	James Perry
Illinois	Charles Freeman
Illinois	Robert Thomas
Illinois	Thomas Kilbride
Iowa	Chief Justice Marsha Ternus
Iowa	Michael Streit
Iowa	David Baker
Kansas	Chief Justice Lawton Nuss
Kansas	Marla Luckert
Kansas	Carol Beier
Kansas	Dan Biles
Maryland	Glenn Harrell Jr.
Maryland	Joseph Murphy Jr.
Maryland	Sally Adkins
Maryland	Mary Ellen Barbera
Missouri	Zel Fischer
Montana	Michael Wheat
Nebraska	Chief Justice Mike Heavican
Nebraska	John Gerrard
Nebraska	William Connolly
Nebraska	John Wright
New Mexico	Petra Jimenez Maes
New Mexico	Chief Justice Charles Daniels
Oklahoma Supreme Court	James Winchester
Oklahoma Supreme Court	Rudolph Hargrave
Tennessee	Sharon Lee

The NCSC Backgrounder is designed to provide the media with statistics and facts related to current issues of interest.

The National Center for State Courts, headquartered in Williamsburg, Va., is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the administration of justice by providing leadership and service to the state courts. Founded in 1971 by the Conference of Chief Justices and Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger, NCSC provides education, training, technology, management, and research services to the nation's state courts.