Secret Cash Dominates in State Court Races

In the months before Justice David T. Prosser Jr. and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg faced off in Wisconsin's Apr. 5 Supreme Court election, unidentified contributors poured $4.4 million into the race—almost six times as much as the candidates spent on the campaign. The outside money came from five nonprofit groups with ties to business, labor, trial lawyers, and Tea Party organizations. Under Wisconsin law, such groups are not required to disclose their contributors. "The candidates have become spectators in their own elections," says Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonprofit that tracks political donations.

In the 39 states that elect judges, the funding of campaigns for spots on the bench is becoming more opaque. The trend resembles what is going on in federal political races as a result of the January 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in . That decision, which applies to federal election law, lifted certain restrictions on political spending by corporations and labor unions.