Willie Sutton, asked why he robbed banks, uttered the famous line, "Because that's where the money is." Guess who donates to candidates for judicial office?

The six people running as major-party candidates for the Texas Supreme Court got two-thirds of their contributions, through June, from lawyers and litigants with business before that court, according to a study by Texans for Public Justice. The three Republican incumbents raised $1.6 million between January 2007 and June of this year, with 65 percent coming from people with interest before the court. Their Democratic challengers raised $722,167 during the same time frame, with 69 percent coming from those particularly interested parties. Eighteen of the 20 biggest givers were law firms (on both sides of the bar); the other two were USAA, an insurance company, and Texans for Lawsuit Reform.