October 25, 2010 by matray

side note: Politics at its lowest are at play in Illinois. Special interest groups looking to remove Justice Kilbride for his recent ruling that declared Illinois tort reforms unconstitutional, are using negative, questionable attack ads that question his toughness on crime. Rather than resorting to faceless businesses making questionable attacks, why don't we try to educate the electorate on the benefits of tort reform and write laws that pass constitutional muster? In a visceral and well-funded attack on Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas L. Kilbride, radio listeners throughout Illinois can hear actors portraying the state's nastiest criminals explain how the judge sided with them over their victims. "I was convicted of sexual assault on a woman and her 10-year-old daughter," says the actor playing Paul Runge, the last of three heinous felons featured in the campaign ad. "Then I slashed their throats and burned them. … Unfortunately for felons like us, other justices overruled Kilbride and our convictions stood." The radio spot portraying Kilbride as soft on crime is part of a coordinated campaign by business interests trying to make the Democrat the first Supreme Court justice in state history to lose a retention vote for another 10-year term. Register and receive free newsletters and alerts >> While the campaign focuses on what Kilbride calls "gross distortions" of his record in criminal cases, the real aim of the Illinois Civil Justice League is to dump a judge they see as unwilling to stop large jury awards given to plaintiffs in malpractice and other negligence lawsuits. continue reading