The final price tag for Alabama's judicial election

Alabama started the trend of expensive and nasty judicial elections back in 1994, when Karl Rove applied his considerable political skills to swing the court from Democrat to Republican. The model was so successful that Republicans and business groups exported the model to other states, setting off something of an arms race in state supreme court elections. In 2004, the nation's most expensive race came in Illinois, ringing in at $9 million for a contested seat on the state high court. But apparently, Alabamans are holding fast to the championship title in judicial campaign spending. The Birmingham News reports that the five races for state supreme court last year cost more than $12 million, the most costly in the nation. Naturally, the bulk of the money came from insurance companies, banks, health care companies and myriad tort reform groups.