Traverse City Record-Eagle

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June 30, 2010

Weaver will seek top court re-election

BY BRIAN McGILLIVARY bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth "Betty" Weaver will seek re-election to the state's high court as an independent.

Weaver, of Glen Arbor, filed an affidavit with the secretary of state's office shortly before 4 p.m. today to place her name on the November ballot. State supreme court candidates are nominated by political party convention, then run as independents.

An outspoken critic of Michigan's partisan nominating system for electing non-partisan judges, Weaver said she will skip the nominating process.

"I need no nomination of any political party to be on the ballot and seek none," Weaver said in a prepared release. "It is that independent thinking judge that is the most highly valued member of any court, state or federal."

Voters elected Weaver to the state's high court in 1994 and again in 2002 after she received the Republican nomination. She previously served eight years on the state court of appeals and 12 years as Leelanau County's probate court judge.

She's the only justice not from what she terms the "Detroit/Lansing beltway."

Weaver's decision allows state Republicans to nominate another candidate along with Justice Robert Young for the November ballot. Young also filed an affidavit, but is expected to seek and receive the Republican nomination.

Supreme court candidates are not listed by political party on the ballot, but both Young and Weaver will be identified as a justice.

Bill Ballenger, editor of the political newsletter Inside Michigan Politics, said Weaver frequently is at odds with her Republican colleagues on the court and often sides with Democrats, so she is unlikely to get a Republican nomination.

But, he added, he likes her re-election chances more so than Young's.

"The same two people ran in 2002, and Weaver finished first and Young finished second," Ballenger said. "She has her followers and it will be hard for the Democrats to go after her. The Democrats have been pounding Young with press releases for over a year.€

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