Perdue weighing need for partisan judicial races.

Gov. Sonny Perdue said Monday that he could see himself supporting a constitutional amendment to turn future Georgia judicial elections into partisan contests due to the increasingly political nature of such races.

"I don't support that at this time," Perdue, a Republican, said in an interview with Savannah Morning News. "But if we are not able to take partisanship out of races ... I think we should open it up."

In order to be placed on the ballot for voter approval, [a] resolution would need to pass the House and Senate in 2006 with the support of two-thirds of each chamber's lawmakers.

University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock noted it would be difficult for the GOP to pass the resolution without the support of several dozen conservative Democrats.

Such a showing of bipartisan unity would be highly unexpected in 2006, when both Republicans and Democrats will be fighting for control of the legislature and the governor's mansion, Bullock said.

(5-24-05 article by Brian Basinger of Morris News Service.)