Alabama high court race again garners most expensive pricetag in U.S.

A spending surge the week before the Nov. 4 election helped paste a $5.3 million final price tag on the Alabama Supreme Court race, making it the nation’s most expensive in 2008, according to new campaign disclosures and watchdog groups.

Republican Greg Shaw, Democrat Deborah Bell Paseur and a third-party group spent nearly $850,000 during the last week of the campaign to buy airtime for ads, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

Total candidate spending was nearly $4.3 million – $2.5 million by Paseur and $1.8 million by Shaw, according to state campaign disclosures, including final accountings filed this week. Third-party groups spent at least $1 million more.

Despite being surpassed by Paseur in ad spending, Shaw squeaked to victory by fewer than 13,000 votes out of 2 million cast Nov. 4. He was sworn in Jan. 20.

Shaw, Paseur and the Virginia-based Center for Individual Freedom spent about $4 million on TV ads, according to disclosure forms and the Brennan Center, which tracks the influence of politics on the judiciary. That paid for nearly 11,000 ad spots, the Brennan Center said.

Paseur’s nearly $2 million ad campaign, the most spent in any judicial race nationally in 2008, paid for 6,000 ad airings on TV stations, disclosure forms and Brennan Center data show.

The Center for Individual Freedom ranked fifth nationally in buying airtime for judicial ads, according to the Brennan Center. The CIF, which does not disclose its donors, ran more than 2,400 ads in October and early November either supporting Shaw or attacking Paseur.

Paseur raised nearly $2.6 million in cash and in-kind services during her Supreme Court campaign, disclosure forms show.

About two-thirds of her total money came from the state Democratic Party executive committee, including $85,000 in cash and donated ads the week before the election, records show. Donors to the party committee include plaintiff trial lawyers and the state teachers union, the primary backers of Democratic judicial candidates.

Paseur’s campaign ended with a $32,000 surplus.

Pro-business political action committees continued to be the primary source of the $1.8 million total Shaw raised, disclosures show.

Shaw received nearly $128,000 in PAC money the last week of his campaign, current disclosures show. A further $27,500 came from PACs in late December to help retire a portion of Shaw’s campaign debt, now nearly $69,000, disclosures show.

Armed with an infusion of Democratic Party money, Paseur heavily outspent Shaw in the final month of the campaign, quickly gaining domination of the airwaves.

As Shaw fell further behind Paseur’s ad pace in early October, the Center for Individual Freedom leaped in with pro-Shaw television ads, followed by anti-Paseur spots.

Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Abuse, a tort-reform advocacy group, also ran ads the last two weeks of the campaign on 14 radio stations statewide attacking Paseur’s judicial record. The group spent $160,000 to $180,000, AVALA executive director Skip Tucker said Friday.

Between Oct. 22 and Nov. 4, Paseur spent $625,000 to buy airtime for