Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gvh9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T23:21:51.836Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

OH, MI: A Note on Empirical Examinations of Judicial Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Michael J. Nelson ,
Rachel Paine Caufield  and
Andrew D. Martin
Michael J. Nelson*
Affiliation:
Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
Rachel Paine Caufield
Affiliation:
Drake University, Des Moines, IA, USA
Andrew D. Martin
Affiliation:
Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
*
Michael J. Nelson, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1063, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. Email: mjnelson@wustl.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Studies of state judicial selection systems require accurate classification of electoral systems. While agreement exists for most states, Ohio and Michigan are difficult to classify. In this paper, we discuss the different practices and explain how, in the absence of candidates' party affiliation on the ballot, elections in these states may justifiably be classified as partisan. Replicating the results of an important study on participation in judicial elections, we show how the treatment of these states may result in differing substantive conclusions. We conclude by urging scholars to provide evidence that their results are robust to alternative classifications.

Keywords

judicial electionsjudicial politicsjudicial selectionelectoral systemselection rulespolitical behaviorpolitical participation
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 495 - 511
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Judicature Society. 2003. “Judicial Selection in the States: Initial Selection, Retention, and Term Length.” Paper published by American Judicature Society.Google Scholar
American Judicature Society. 2013. “Judicial Selection in the States: Initial Selection, Retention, and Term Length.” http://judicialselection.us/uploads/documents/Selection_Retention_Term_1196092850316.pdf (accessed August 11, 2013).Google Scholar
Baum, Lawrence. 1987a. “Explaining the Vote in Judicial Elections: The 1984 Ohio Supreme Court Elections.” Western Political Quarterly 40:361–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baum, Lawrence. 1987b. “Information and Party Voting in ‘Semipartisan’ Judicial Elections.” Political Behavior 9:62–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bawn, Kathleen, Cohen, Marten, Karol, David, Masket, Seth, Noel, Hans, and Zaller, John. 2012. “A Theory of Political Parties: Groups, Policy Demands and Nominations in American Politics.” Perspectives on Politics 10:571–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blume, John, and Eisenberg, Theodore. 1998. “Judicial Politics, Death Penalty Appeals, and Case Selection: An Empirical Study.” Southern California Law Review 72:465–503.Google Scholar
Bonneau, Chris W. 2004. “Patterns of Campaign Spending and Electoral Competition in State Supreme Court Elections.” Justice System Journal 25:21–38.Google Scholar
Bonneau, Chris W. 2005 a. “Electoral Verdicts: Incumbent Defeats in State Supreme Courts.” American Politics Research 33:818–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonneau, Chris W. 2005 b. “What Price Justice(s)? Understanding Campaign Spending in State Supreme Court Elections.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 5:107–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonneau, Chris W. 2007 a. “Campaign Fundraising in State Supreme Court Elections.” Social Science Quarterly 88:68–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonneau, Chris W. 2007 b. “The Effects of Campaign Spending in State Supreme Court Elections.” Political Research Quarterly 60:489–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonneau, Chris W. 2007 c. “The Dynamics of Campaign Spending in State Supreme Court Elections” In Running for Judge, ed. Streb, Matthew J.. New York: New York University Press, 59–72.Google Scholar
Bonneau, Chris W., and Hall, Melinda Gann. 2003. “Predicting Challengers in State Supreme Court Elections: Context and the Politics of Institutional Design.” Political Research Quarterly 56:337–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonneau, Chris W., and Hall, Melinda Gann. 2009. In Defense of Judicial Elections. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brace, Paul, and Hall, Melinda Gann. 1993. “Integrated Models of Judicial Dissent.” Journal of Politics 55:914–35.Google Scholar
Caldarone, Richard P., Canes-Wrone, Brandice, and Clark, Tom S.. 2009. “Partisan Labels and Democratic Accountability: An Analysis of State Supreme Court Abortion Decisions.” Journal of Politics 71:560–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canes-Wrone, Brandice, and Clark, Tom S.. 2009. “Judicial Independence and Nonpartisan Elections.” Wisconsin Law Review 2009:21–65.Google Scholar
Cann, Damon. 2007. “Beyond Accountability and Independence: Judicial Selection and State Court Performance.” Judicature 90:226–32.Google Scholar
Cheek, Kyle D., and Champagne, Anthony. 2003. “Partisan Judicial Elections: Lessons from Bellwether State.” Willamette Law Review 39:1357–84.Google Scholar
Driscoll, Amanda, and Nelson, Michael J.. 2013a. “The Political Origins of Judicial Elections: Evidence from the United States and Bolivia.” Judicature 96:151–60.Google Scholar
Driscoll, Amanda, and Nelson, Michael J.. 2013b. “Candidate Qualifications and the 2011 Judicial Elections in Bolivia.” Paper presented at the 2013 Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Dubois, Philip L. 1979. “Voter Turnout in State Judicial Elections: An Analysis of the Tail on the Electoral Kite.” Journal of Politics 41:865–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flango, Victor, Eugene, , and Ducat, Craig R.. 1979. “What Difference Does Method of Judicial Selection Make? Selection Procedures in State Courts of Last Resort.” Justice System Journal 5:25–44.Google Scholar
Frederick, Brian, and Streb, Matthew J.. 2008. “Women Running for Judge: The Impact of Sex on Candidate Success in State Intermediate Appellate Court Elections.” Social Science Quarterly 89:937–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, Stanford C., and Huber, Gregory A.. 2007. “The Effect of Electoral Competitiveness on Incumbent Behavior.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 2:107–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Melinda Gann. 2001. “State Supreme Courts in American Democracy: Probing the Myths of Judicial Reform.” American Political Science Review 95:315–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Melinda Gann. 2007. “Voting in State Supreme Court Elections: Competition and Context as Democratic Incentives.” Journal of Politics 69:1147–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Melinda Gann, and Bonneau, Chris W.. 2006. “Does Quality Matter? Challengers in State Supreme Court Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 50:20–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Melinda Gann, and Bonneau, Chris W.. 2008. “Mobilizing Interest: The Effects of Money on Citizen Participation in State Supreme Court Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 52:457–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Melinda Gann, and Bonneau, Chris W.. 2013. “Attack Advertising, the White Decision, and Voter Participation in State Supreme Court Elections.” Political Research Quarterly 66(1): 115–26.Google Scholar
Hall, Melinda Gann, and Brace, Paul. 1992. “Toward and Integrated Model of Judicial Voting Behavior.” American Politics Research 20:147–68.Google Scholar
Hall, Melinda Gann, and Brace, Paul. 1999. “State Supreme Courts and the Environments: Avenues to General Theories of Judicial Choice.” In Supreme Court Decision-Making: New Institutionalist Approaches, eds. Clayton, Cornell W. and Gillman, Howard. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 281–300.Google Scholar
Hanssen, F. Andrew. 2004. “Learning about Judicial Independence: Institutional Change in the State Courts.” Journal of Legal Studies 33:431–74.Google Scholar
Hurwitz, Mark S. 2010. “Selection System, Diversity, and the Michigan Supreme Court.” Wayne State Law Review 56:691–704.Google Scholar
Klein, David, and Baum, Lawrence. 2001. “Ballot Information and Voting Decisions in Judicial Elections.” Political Research Quarterly 54:709–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kritzer, Herbert M. 2007. “Law is the Mere Continuation of Politics by Different Means: American Judicial Selection in the Twenty-First Century.” DePaul Law Review 56:423–68.Google Scholar
Kritzer, Herbert M. 2011. “Competitiveness in State Supreme Court Elections, 1946–2009.” Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 8(2): 237–59.Google Scholar
Langer, Laura. 2002. Judicial Review in State Supreme Courts: A Comparative Study. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Lascher, Edward L. 1991. “The Case of the Missing Democrats: Reexamining the ‘Republican Advantage’ in Nonpartisan Elections.” Western Political Quarterly 44:656–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupia, Arthur. 1994. “Shortcuts versus Encyclopedias: Information and Voting Behavior in California Insurance Reform Elections.” American Political Science Review 88:63–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masket, Seth. 2007. “It Takes an Outsider: Extra-legislative Organization and Partisanship in the California Assembly, 1849-2006.” American Journal of Political Science 51:482–97.Google Scholar
Masket, Seth. 2009. No Middle Ground: How Informal Party Organizations Control Nominations and Polarize Legislatures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, Stuart S. 1961. “Political Party Affiliation and Judges' Decisions.” American Political Science Review 55:843–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Michael J. 2011. “Uncontested and Unaccountable? Contestation Rates in Trial Court Elections.” Judicature 10:208–17.Google Scholar
Peters, C. Scott. 2009. “Canons of Ethics and Accountability in State Supreme Court Elections.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 9:24–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, Thomas R. 2009. “The Merits of Merit Selection.” Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 32:67–96.Google Scholar
Rock, Emily, and Baum, Lawrence. 2010. “The Impact of High-Visibility Contests for U.S. State Court Judgeships: Partisan Voting in Nonpartisan Elections.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 10:368–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sample, James, Skaggs, Adam, Blitzer, Jonathan, Casey, Linda, and Hall, Charles. 2010. The New Politics of Judicial Elections, 2000-2009. Washington, DC: Justice At Stake Campaign.Google Scholar
Schotland, Roy A. 2007. “New Challenges to States' Judicial Selection.” Georgetown Law Journal 96:1077–105.Google Scholar
Shepherd, Joanna M. 2009 a. “Are Appointed Judges Strategic Too?” Duke Law Journal 58:1589–626.Google Scholar
Shepherd, Joanna M. 2009 b. “The Influence of Retention Politics on Judges' Voting.” Journal of Legal Studies 38:169–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepherd, Joanna M. 2010. “The Politics of Judicial Opposition.” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 166:88–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shugerman, Jed Handlesman. 2012. The People's Courts: The Rise of Judicial Elections and Judicial Power in America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Streb, Matthew. 2007. “Partisan Involvement in Partisan and Nonpartisan Trial Court Elections.” In Running for Judge, ed. Streb, Matthew J.. New York: New York University Press, 96–115.Google Scholar
Streb, Matthew J., Frederick, Brian, and LaFrance, Casey. 2007. “Contestation, Competition, and the Potential for Accountability in Intermediate Appellate Court Elections.” Judicature 91:70–78.Google Scholar
Tarr, G. Alan. 2003. “Reform Proposals: Rethinking the Selection of State Supreme Court Justices.” Willamette Law Review 39:1445.Google Scholar
Ulmer, S. Sidney. 1962. “The Political Party Variable in the Michigan Supreme Court.” Journal of Public Law 11:352–62.Google Scholar
Wheat, Elizabeth, and Hurwtiz, Mark S.. 2013. “The Politics of Judicial Selection: The Case of the Michigan Supreme Court.” Judicature 96:178–88.Google Scholar
Wright, Gerald C. 2008. “Charles Adrian and the Sudy of Nonpartisan Elections.” Political Research Quarterly 61:13–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar