A bipartisan effort led by the Coalition for Impartial Justice is proposing a system of judicial review and retention elections to avoid the highly charged, politically explosive contests common in Wisconsin, Texas and other states.

Advocates of overhauling the state's judicial elections have lost a key co-sponsor heading into the 2012 legislative session. Sen. David Hann, chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, says he will pull his name from legislation proposing a constitutional amendment to adopt retention elections.

Last year voters in Wisconsin witnessed an ugly campaign for a seat on the state’s Supreme Court between incumbent justice David Prosser and assistant attorney general JoAnne Kloppenburg. Some three dozen outside interest groups spent $4.5 million seeking to influence the outcome of the contest, according to a report by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.