The Times discusses judicial elections in this editorial this morning.

Thirty-nine states hold judicial elections. Between 1990 and 1999, campaign fund-raising by State Supreme Court candidates totaled $83.3 million, according to the report, a troubling escalation from the previous decade but less than half the $206 million raised between 2000 and 2009. The collective $6 million raised by top court aspirants at the dawn of the 1990s now seems a mere trickle compared with the $45 million-plus reported during the 2008 election cycle.