Groen in the money

Supreme Court candidate John Groen has jumped to a big cash advantage over incumbent Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, mostly due to big donors dumping cash into his pocket before donation limits go into effect. He took in $171,475.40 in June, yet spent an insane $190,144.91 during the same time period -- this without even somebody paying as much attention as I seeing much of anything from his campaign. By contrast, Alexander is taking in less money (about $50,000 last month) but is sitting on it to build up a decent amount of cash on hand. Because of Groen's spendthriftiness, they are similar on cash on hand numbers.

In the past I had indicated I thought all these complaints over judicial PACs were much ado about nothing. However, in this specific case, Gerry Alexander is the easy pick for the seat. Groen and his buds are trying to buy a conservative seat, and while I have no problem with having some conservatives on the court (I voted for both Richard Sanders and Jim Johnson), Alexander is consistently the rational, moderate voice on the court. I was surprised when Groen challenged him, who is more friendly to business interests than many on the court, and Tom Chambers is still left alone. The Owens/Johnson campaign is more of a lesser of two evils, and while it is unlikely, it would be nice for a decent centrist to jump into that race to balance the liberal Owens and conservative Johnson.