Public order in the courts. (Networks).

AS THE LEGAL BATTLE OVER MCCAIN-Feingold heated up in Washington, the push for public financing of campaigns inched forward at the state level when, on Oct. 10, North Carolina Gov. Michael Easley signed into law the Judicial Campaign Reform Act. Although it's modeled after the "clean-money" systems in place for legislative races in Arizona and Maine, it's the first in the United States to address judicial elections by offering candidates running for the state Supreme Court and the state Court of Appeals the ability to get out of the big-money chase and tap into a reserve ...