Rival ads debate limits for judges

Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 7, 2006 at midnight

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The two sides in the debate over limiting state Supreme Court justices and appellate court judges to 10 years on the bench will hit the airwaves next week with $1.2 million worth of radio and television ads.

Opponents of the ballot measure known as Amendment 40, funded largely by the Colorado Bar Association and contributions from individual attorneys, have dropped $900,000 on spots that will run statewide on broadcast and cable television as well as radio, said Stacy Chesney, spokeswoman for Citizens to Protect Colorado Courts.

Limit the Judges, the group supporting the ballot initiative, has spent about $300,000 on statewide ads that will run on radio and cable television, said John Andrews, the group's chairman. Limit the Judges has received almost all of its money from Colorado At Its Best, a Golden-based organization that supports term limits.

Andrews, former Senate president, knows Limit the Judges is being outfunded by its opponents, who feature a lengthy list of supporters - including Gov. Bill Owens and three former governors - on their Web site.

But he's optimistic because of polls showing a majority of voters favor Amendment 40.

A September Rocky Mountain News/CBS 4 poll showed 54 percent of voters surveyed would vote in favor of the initiative.

A poll conducted for Limit the Judges by Vitale and Associates days later showed the measure had support from 56 percent of voters.

That poll also showed that 77 percent of likely voters were in favor of term limits.

Colorado already has term limits for the governor, state senators and representatives and many local offices.

"I can't ever remember a time when (term limits) had establishment backers, and yet time after time, voters like it," Andrews said.

Chesney said the anti-Amendment 40 ads will focus on the fact that the initiative would boot five of the seven state Supreme Court justices at one time. The ad - using the tagline "Bad Idea. Serious Consequences." - also argues the proposed state constitutional amendment would cause a serious backlog and delays in the state's courts.

"We really need to get the message out that this is a big deal and a bad idea for Colorado," Chesney said.

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