Jeff Roe is Out to Destroy the Non-Partisan Missouri Plan on Selecting Judges

Across the Country, states use the Missouri Plan (yes, even Kansas calls it the Missouri Plan) to select judges in a non-partisan manner. Politics should never play role in picking judges. Who wants a judge that owes people favors? Jeff Roe does! Below is an article about how his mudslinging took out a Missouri judge.


Jeff Roe, the Missouri political consultant, laid it on the line today at a Washington conference on judicial elections.
"Modern-day politics has arrived in the judicial branch," Roe said in an interview with Prime Buzz. "They (judges) run as partisans. That means the modern-day campaign has arrived at the judicial branch."
The session, sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania and FactCheck.org, was titled "Mudslinging in Judicial Campaigns: Beginning to Look a Lot Like Congress."
Roe, who heads Axiom Strategies of Kansas City, was called to the conference because of his work on a 2006 campaign to oust former Cole County Circuit Judge Tom Brown. Voters booted him from office after the a campaign by a group that said it opposed judicial activism.
Cole County is the home of the state Capitol, which means meaty issues pertaining to state government often wind up in the court.
Brown was a Democrat seeking a third six-year term. He lost to Republican challenger Jon Beetem in an election that took place outside Missouri's non-partisan court plan that involves the screening of candidates for judicial posts and appointments by the governor.
Roe said arguments can be made about whether judges should be appointed, elected or retained in office.
"Under the current system, there are some of each," he said. "Those who run for public office must make their case to the voters."
If you don't like that system, "Change the Constitution," he said.
Judicial seats are becoming more politicial as more interest groups opt to engage in the process, Roe said.
Following the Brown election last year, Roe told a forum in Kanas City that, "There are large groups around the country that are in place to defeat judges."
At the forum, Roe said those groups know that spending a significant amount of money in a local judge's race is more cost-effective than spending perhaps $250,000 or more to oppose the retention of a statewide judge.
"If you place large sums of money quickly in a judicial race, you have the immediate impact," Roe said.