Supreme Court’s Cook

MONTGOMERY – Alabama Supreme Court Justice Ralph Cook answered his Republican opponent’s call to disavow the Democratic Party’s arbitration ads Friday by saying all third-party ads should be stopped.

Cook, the Democratic incumbent who is seeking re-election, wrote his Republican opponent, Lyn Stuart, that he expects Alabama voters to “choose the best candidate for Supreme Court Place 1 based on qualifications and experience.”

“I don’t think any of these third-party ads ought to be running,” Cook said in an interview, referring to ads in judicial races that are placed by groups other than candidates’ campaign organizations. “This is exactly what you get when you have partisan judicial elections.”

Ads by the Democratic Party, which began running Wednesday, accuse Republican Supreme Court justices of denying people injured by Firestone tires or Ford Explorers the right to sue the companies.

Other ads by Citizens for a Sound Economy have said plaintiff trial lawyers are pouring money into the campaigns of Democratic judicial candidates, based on financial reports filed with the secretary of state.

Cook said he had no idea the Democratic Party’s ad was coming. “Nobody told me, and I had no input in it,” he said.

Stuart wrote Cook on Thursday that she considers the Democratic Party’s ad “blatantly false” and called on him to disavow it and to call on the party to stop running it.

“Though I control my campaign, no candidate has control over a political party,” Cook said in a written statement Friday.

Republican Thomas A. Woodall on Thursday also called on Justice John England, a Democratic appointee seeking election to a full term on the Supreme Court, to disavow the Democrat ad.

England said Friday he would have a statement prepared later.