November 5, 2008

From Detroit News:

Chief Justice Clifford Taylor of the Michigan Supreme Court was defeated Tuesday by Democratic challenger Diane Hathaway, becoming what is believed to be the first sitting chief justice in Michigan history to lose at the polls.

"It looks like she's won," Taylor told The Detroit News in a telephone interview at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. "It looks pretty conclusive."

Hathaway, a Wayne County Circuit judge, was leading Taylor based on exit polls conducted by Tim Kiska and Associates for The Detroit News and Channel 7 Action News.

Hathaway's win signals a major shake-up, reducing a 5-2 Republican majority to 4-3 on the state's highest court, where one of the Republican-nominated justices, Elizabeth Weaver, has been a frequent dissenter from majority opinions.

Hathaway's victory occurs during a Democratic blowout in Michigan, with Obama winning 56 percent of the vote and defeats for incumbent Republican Congressmen Joe Knollenberg, and it appears, Mark Wahlberg. The left-leaning "judicial reform" groups like the Soros-backed Justice at Stake will declare Taylor's defeat as a major achievement for good government and repudiation of business-spending on judicial campaigns.

Anyway, discouraging for rule-of-law judges. (And for disclosure purposes, my boss at NAM is former Michigan Gov. John Engler, who originally appointed Taylor.)