SPRINGFIELD, IL -- A recent proposal by the Illinois legislature to introduce public financing for the state's judicial campaigns is under fire.

A prominent Chicago-based legal blogger today criticized the bill for financially discriminating against independent and third-party candidates and in favor of Democrats and Republicans.

Illinois Senate Bill SB222 would provide $750,000 for state Supreme Court candidates and $250,000 for Appellate Court candidates who choose to accept public financing. Those who do would be limited to spending $10,000 of their own money and accepting private donations of $100 per donor.

The bipartisan bill was filed last week by Democratic State Senator Kwame Raoul and co-sponsored by Republican State Senator and Minority Whip Kirk Dillard. It aims to eliminate the kind of big-money judicial races in Illinois that have recently drawn criticism.

The bill provides funds only for the winners of major-party primaries and makes no mention of minor-party or independent candidates. It also caps individual contributions to an Illinois judicial candidate at $2,000 per donor.

These two provisions mean the bill discriminates against state judicial candidates who represent neither the Republican nor the Democratic Party, argues a blog entry posted today by civil-appeals lawyer Steven R. Merican at www.illinoisappellatelawyerblog.com.

Not only are such candidates excluded from public financing under the bill, he argues, but the cap also forces them to round up a lot more private donors than their major-party opponents.

To get even with major-party candidates on public money, non-major-party candidates for Supreme Court would need 375 maximum-contribution donors while those for Appeals Court would need 125.

"This bill would force taxpayers to subsidize the campaigns of the major party candidates," Merican wrote. "And it will cost extra if you want to support an independent candidate."

The Illinois Civil Justice League, a pro-tort-reform group, favors more drastic change to judicial races than public campaign-financing. President Ed Murnane says the state should consider appointing judges through a merit-selection process rather than election by popular vote.

The Illinois judicial-campaign-finance bill is similar to one recently proposed by Washington state Governor Christine Gregoire. That bill would allow up to $680,000 for Supreme Court candidates and $54,000 for Appeals Court hopefuls.

Washington Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders opposes the bill, saying that it would "force the public to pay for views with which they may disagree."