Irony of buying favor from judges

Nice op/ed from Gail Kerr Tennessean, "Fundraising to Keep Judges from Being Bought is Ironic"):

Lawyers and former judges are raising money from big law firms to try and preserve the current method of seating Tennessee's appellate court judges.

The irony is not lost: Those very legal eagles argue that allowing judges to be popularly elected would create a system in which special interests and big powerful law firms can buy the state's judiciary.

My only quibble is with Kerr's flat assertion that, "Overall, the current system has worked beautifully to place appeals court judges who have followed the rule of law." Who says?