By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder is holding up attempts to reform the state's judicial elections, Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer said Friday.

Speaking to lawyers and reform advocates in Cincinnati, Moyer urged the House to pass a bill that would ban corporations or labor unions from paying for independent election ads, and would require the disclosure of all other contributors.

The bill has passed the Senate 31-1, but is held up in committee in the House.

"The speaker is the one who controls the calendar," Moyer said. "He has his reasons, which I don't know."

Householder, R-Glenford, has declined to discuss the bill. In the past, he has been actively involved in raising money for the independent campaigns.

In 2000, the Citizens for a Strong Ohio's "Lady Justice" ad accused Justice Alice Robie Resnick of taking money from trial lawyers and labor unions in exchange for favorable rulings. Resnick won re-election anyway.

Without the bill's passage, Ohioans are likely to see the same kinds of ads this fall, Moyer said. Four of the seven Supreme Court seats - including Moyer's - are up for election this November.

Why are those independent expenditures so important? One study of ads in the 2000 and 2002 campaigns showed that half of special-interest ads were negative, while only one-fifth of candidate-paid ads were.

"The less we know about the sponsors, the more provocative and negative the ads tend to be," Moyer said.

All told, the cost of winning an Ohio Supreme Court seat is now $1.85 million - making it what one national watchdog group - Justice at Stake - calls a "poster child for reform."

Moyer also floated other ideas for reforming the judicial system - including the appointment of judges, longer terms and more stringent qualifications. But he said, "There's no perfect system for selecting judges."

Moyer acknowledged that there were problems with the judicial system farther down the ballot, too. But money is "not so much a problem in Hamilton County, because you tend to have a lot of elections where there's no opponent. That tends to decrease the fund-raising." Most judges in Hamilton County are nominated by the Republican Party, as is Moyer.

"I'm not proposing changing the local system," he said. "Of the 88 counties, most are not the size of Hamilton, Franklin and Cuyahoga. In most counties, people can know the qualifications of the candidates."

Moyer's Democratic opponent, retired Cleveland Municipal Court Judge C. Ellen Connally, did not return a phone call seeking comment Friday.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com