Illinois

The supreme court announced that it will not revisit its decision in Avery v. State Farm. The petition to vacate the decision was based on recent allegations that State Farm had contributed more than $3 million to the election campaign of one of the justices.

Seven in ten respondents to a recent poll favored or strongly favored adopting campaign contribution limits for judicial races. Just over half supported public financing of judicial elections.

There may be as many as 175 judicial elections—both contested and retention—on the 2012 general election ballot. Two of these races are at the supreme court level, with one justice expected to stand for retention and one justice who was appointed to the bench competing against several challengers to keep her seat.