The drumbeat for public financing of judicial elections in Washington gets a little louder, with Kate Riley of The Seattle Times weighing in in support of the idea, now that the contentious election season with its record spending on judicial races has wrapped. Riley cites North Carolina's successful judicial public financing system as a vastly superior alternative to the special interest money slugfest that drew a flurry of press in the state and prompted Governor Christine Gregoire to indicate she'd investigate the public financing solution. She concludes that "[p]ublic financing of judicial campaigns could be a way to make sure the judges remain focused on the people's business of applying the law impartially and not for the benefit of special interests." Let's hope we see some real progress on this in the Evergreen State!