Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer yesterday called for public financing of Ohio Supreme Court campaigns and full disclosure of contributors.

Moyer acknowledged that public financing can't happen during the current budget crisis. But in rosier times, he said, as much as $300,000 could fund each associate-justice candidate and $600,000 each chief- justice candidate.

"There's no way we can ask the General Assembly to adopt it now,'' Moyer said.

Asking taxpayers to check boxes on their state tax returns is one mechanism for raising the money, he said. And Congress could provide free mailing privileges for states that print judicial voter guides, he said.

Most of the proposals, offered during the Ohio State Bar Association's annual meeting, were prompted by a 2000 race in which a group formed by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce spent an estimated $4 million trying to defeat Democratic Justice Alice Robie Resnick.

Ads paid for by Citizens for a Strong Ohio criticized Resnick for her votes on workers' compensation and other issues. Names of contributors to the group's campaign never were revealed.

If an organization spends at least $10,000 on a judicial campaign, Moyer proposed, it should disclose the names of individuals giving $500 or more and the names of groups giving $2,000 or more.

"The most important value of courts in a country that lives by the rule of law -- trust and confidence -- is being diminished by the raising and spending of money,'' Moyer said to about 300 lawyers yesterday at the Hyatt Regency. "Until we change the constitutional process by which justices are selected, we should change the practical realities of judicial campaigns.''

Columbus lawyer Stephen E. Chappelear, who was installed as president of the state bar association, announced the formation of an 11-member committee to monitor judicial campaigns, similar to one now run by the Columbus Bar Association. The state bar also will ask judicial candidates to sign pledges not to air negative advertisements or print negative literature.

Chappelear said the committee's only enforcement power is publicly condemning violators.

"We will continue to defend our courts and our profession from unfair and unwarranted attacks,'' he said.

In letters to Gov. Bob Taft and legislative leaders, Moyer renewed his call for a broad-based, bipartisan commission to review the process of selecting Supreme Court justices and other appellate-court judges and to examine the qualifications for judicial office.

Moyer also proposed: