Campaign Ad Attacks Michigan Supreme Court Justice as Insurers’ Lackey

An unknown group aired a television ad bashing Michigan Supreme Court Justice Stephen Markman, who was up for re-election. The negative ad was the first in the high court race, which had been relatively calm.

A group that calls itself Citizens for Judicial Reform spent about $200,000 to air the ad, which said Markman is an “extremist” who was secretly appointed to the bench “on orders of the insurance industry and large corporations.” It urged viewers to “vote no on Markman.”

The group is not registered with the Secretary of State, which oversees campaign finance disclosure, or the Internal Revenue Service. The ad was placed by Harper Woods-based J.L. Barlow & Associates.

Markman was appointed to the court by Republican Gov. John Engler in 1999 to fill the unexpired term of Justice James Brickley, who stepped down for health reasons. He was elected in 2000 to fill the rest of Brickley’s term.

Markman said the ad is baseless and filled with distortions. He’s frustrated that an individual or group could air the ad without reporting who paid for it.

“That’s not the way it should be,” Markman said. “The reason we have campaign finance laws is so people can get a broad range of information … but also determine where that information is coming from.”

The Michigan Republican Party asked TV stations to stop airing the ad, while the nonpartisan Michigan Campaign Finance Network accused the group of breaking the law. Michigan Government Television, or MGTV, suspects that footage used in the ad was taken from its coverage of the court’s oral arguments. It demanded that the ad be pulled if the station’s copyright was violated.

“It appears that they have made a calculated decision to flout the law because penalties and enforcement for campaign violations are abysmally weak in this state,” said Rich Robinson, director of the campaign finance network. Vio-lators are subject to a $1,000 fine, up to 93 days in jail or both.

Markman, a Republican nominee, and four other candidates were seeking election to two seats on the seven-member court. Justice Marilyn Kelly, a Democratic nominee, along with Wayne County Circuit Judge Deborah Thomas, were running for the court, as were GOP nominee Brian Zahra, a state Court of Appeals judge, and Libertarian Leonard Schwartz, a retired Oak Park professor. Justices run on a nonpartisan ballot.

The Michigan Democratic Party and Michigan Trial Lawyers Association, both of which have been critical of Markman and the court’s other Republican nominees, said they had nothing to do with the current ad. Spokesman Jesse Green said the trial lawyers group does not like negative ads.

“It’s doing a lot of harm to the system to be beating up on judges during every single election,” he said.

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