EDWARDSVILLE - Compared with the recent judicial elections in Southern Illinois, where campaign cash flowed like water, this year's contest for a seat on the Southern Illinois appellate court sounds like it might be something of a snoozer.

And in a way, it appears that's how the candidates and some political observers would prefer it.

Both trial lawyer Judy Cates of Swansea and appointed Appellate Judge James Wexstten of Mount Vernon have pledged to make their Democratic primary race for a 5th District Appellate Court seat a model of political civility. They have signed promises to the state bar association to run clean campaigns and publicly rebuffed the idea of more record-setting fundraising.

Both say they aren't guaranteed to shell out money for lavish TV ads. They also say they want to stick to talking about their own records, rather than each other's.

If the candidates and their supporters hold to those ideals, they would be a break from a recent trend in judicial politics. In the 2004 election, two candidates for the downstate Illinois Supreme Court post and their allies spent $9 million in a bitter contest. That race pitted a Democratic candidate, backed largely by trial lawyers and the state Democratic Party, against a Republican judge, funded by GOP groups and large business interests.

The same battle lines emerged two years later when the total price tag on a heated appellate court race broke $3 million. In the same election, two men vying for a circuit judge seat in Madison County spent more than $600,000.

"What we've seen in the past is not pretty," said Cindi Canary, who heads the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "What we need is for judicial candidates in general to show us that they have some backbone to control themselves and their supporters, to come out and really prove they don't want this kind of a race."

So far, both candidates have said just that.

Cates, 55, the former head of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, said a big-money race "is definitely not something I want to see."

Wexstten, 57, a conservative Democrat who was appointed to temporarily fill the appellate court vacancy earlier this year, added, "I hope it doesn't become that expensive, quite frankly, because I think judge races should take on a demeanor that is respectful."

Though a primary contest, the race has big implications. Because no Republican is running, the victor on Feb. 5 wins the November election by default.

The state bar association has announced it has promises from both candidates to keep things civil. Thomas Clancy, a Chicago lawyer who chairs a bar committee that will monitor the race, said he hopes the tenor of recent races doesn't become the norm.

"You would hope that this is not a graph with the line continually going up on spending in judge races," Clancy said. That's not to say that campaign money inherently leads to a negative or harmful campaign, Clancy and others said. But with TV ads requiring short, concise sound bites and campaigns continually looking for a way to excite voters, it's easy to get carried away.

That wasn't the norm for decades, when judicial races were almost afterthoughts for many a voter. Candidates typically ran on a platform centered around a few biographical facts and general statements. Then, a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision loosened court restrictions on what judges could say in a campaign, and the 2004 state Supreme Court race broke the field wide open.

Along with that race came a fierce battle over St. Louis Metro East courts as interest groups and the political parties themselves have helped turn recent judicial elections into referenda on tort reform.

This year, however, some of those groups say they're not sure how active they will be in the Cates-Wexstten contest. The Illinois Democratic Party says it has no plans to get involved. Likewise tort reform groups such as the American Tort Reform Association and the Illinois Civil Justice League, which has vocally supported Wexstten in the past, say at this point they have no strategies in place.

"We'll be watching, but I'm not sure what exactly we might do," said Ed Murnane, head of the civil justice league.

Another factor that could keep the race quiet is its timing. Conventional political wisdom holds that campaigning during the holiday season is less effective, meaning the race may not heat up until January, said Chris Mooney, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

And how much money Cates or Wexstten have raised this fall won't be known until January, as required by state laws.

"I'd like to think this one will be different," Canary said. "Call back in the new year."

Adam Jadhav can be reached at ajadhav@post-dispatch.com or (618) 624-2415.