Conservative Groups Bankrolling Effort To Oust Tennessee State Supreme Court Judges

A normally uneventful state Supreme Court election in Tennessee is getting national attention as Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, a Republican and the head of the State Senate, has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars through his PAC into a campaign to unseat three Democratically-appointed judges. More than $1 million of in- and out-of-state money has been spent over the re-election of the three judges – Chief Justice Gary Wade and Justices Connie Clark and Sharon Lee – with the Republican-driven political action committees focusing on their vote to suspend two death sentence convictions and maintaining they are anti-business. Tennesseans are being flooded with mailings and vicious campaign ads. Meanwhile, the three incumbent judges have raised more than a $1 million, much of it from lawyers, according to the LA Times, and that may raise ethical issues because some may eventually find themselves before the a judge they have bankrolled.

Update [Aug. 12]: Tennessee voters served Lt. Gov. Ramsey a major defeat Aug. 7 when they voted to retain all three Democrat-appointed justices.