Well, yes and no. You've got the problem of trying to run from it from an
ethical viewpoint. And you've got the problem of financial
contributions. To run a campaign you've got to look at it from . . .
it's in the same sense of a political campaign. You've got to have the
mass media and advertising. And you've got to go around, see the people
and everything else. But you have the problem of what do you do?
[unclear] where you come into office in effect
indebted to your supporters. And this is the thing, from a judicial
position, that ought to be avoided to every degree. It ought not to be
present. My campaign . . . the idea that they worked out in the
beginning is that there would be a group that would raise money and I
would not know how much money was raised or who the contributors were.
This was the idea . . . shield me . . . this was lawyers from throughout
the state . . . would shield me from being able
Page 7 to
know who made contributions and prevent me from feeling I had any
subconscious obligation to support people. Well, that's good in theory.
Lawyers would send me checks. Hell, I'd know who sent it and that sort
of thing. And then, of course, in my home area where I ran, citizens and
other people raised money. Just a friendly or local pride in a native
son running, that sort of thing. The end result was is this, that I
ended up knowing about half of the people that made contributions to my
campaign and about half of them that did not. Under that situation . . .
really, when it got down to it, I ended up with about 90% of the lawyers
supporting me in the race. So it may well . . . I have not had any
qualms about deciding cases against people who supported me. I may have
the idea, well, I don't know, this fellow who's on the other side, he
may have made a much larger contribution than the other. But I tried to
come in and divorce completely the idea of who supported me or who
didn't. Moneywise, I think it's in a, such a state of confusion that I
would not know who did or did not. In my own judgment, I would know
about 50%. You do know—and this is an evil of the elected system—you do
know the man that
[unclear] you, that
worked, that did the legwork, that campaigned for you in this county and
that county, and that sort of thing. So I think ours may have been a
little unique in that method. I don't know of any other place—now you
just ended up in New York for the position of the chief judge of the New
York Court of Appeals, which is the equivalent of the supreme court of
New York, a campaign where unofficial reports say that each candidate in
that race, his supporters spent over one million dollars. Well, that's
not healthy for a judicial system. I was down in New Orleans right after
an election. I went down and made a speech to a meeting of all the
judges. They elect their members of the supreme court by districts. And
they had the two being elected from the New Orleans districts. And I
Page 8 understood there that those candidates, that their
supporters must have spent $200,000 in behalf of each of the candidates.
There was one candidate, fellow who was elected, named
[unclear] who was the former law partner of
Mayor Landry, Boone Landry, the mayor of New Orleans. He was running
against a fellow named Leon Sarpy who was largely a bar association and
more of a large firm candidate. And at the same time they had Garrison
running against a fellow named Marcus. I don't think in that race as
much money on each side was spent, but probably was a substantial amount
in that Marcus-Garrison race. Garrison was defeated. But I mean it
points out the evils of the elective system. Of course there are evils
of the appointed system and I'm not getting off into a debate between
that, but you're asking me about judicial politics. And your question
was to me about my election. But it creeps in. I mean, in all candor,
you can't say that it doesn't. But you try to divorce it as you can and
as far as I know I don't think I've made any vote or any decision that
was based on any political situation that I know of. I mean I've tried
to be honest in my voting and not to let
[unclear] who were my supporters and who were opposing me enter
into it. Consciously I have. You never know subconsciously whether
things enter into your mind or not. I mean you put it away, try to
divorce it, but it's an ill of the system.