San Francisco Chronicle, October 17, 2010 by Susan Gluss
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/17/INCK1FRMSV.DTL
Judicial elections used to be sleepers: rarely advertised and seldom contested. But in the last decade, across the nation many have become multimillion-dollar duels. High-court candidates raised about $207 million for campaign war chests between 2000 and 2009, more than double the money raised in the previous 10 years.