Compelled Disclosure of Independent Political Speech and Constitutional Limitations

Abstract

result is growing pressure to produce “modern” judicial election campaigns (i.e., campaigns that are driven by the need for money to disseminate more information to a large but often inattentive electorate through increasingly expensive modes of communication). This pressure is likely to continue. While the 1998 campaign for one of Wisconsin’s seats in the United States Senate cost $4 million for the relatively restrained Russell Feingold, the 1999 Wisconsin Supreme Court race cost “only” $1 million for all of the candidates combined. 5 Clearly, spending in statewide judicial races lags behind that of other statewide races. Judicial campaigns are attracting the attention of independent groups or, as