Litigation

Interest Rising in WI Court Election?

By Peter Hardin

The Wisconsin legislature’s brawl over collective bargaining rights appears to be sparking heightened interest in the April 5 election for state Supreme Court.

Incumbent Justice David Prosser, a former Republican Assembly speaker, is challenged by lawyer JoAnne Kloppenburg, a little-known candidate and assistant attorney general.

An opinion column in the Superior Telegram is headlined, “Legislature heats up Supreme Court race.” That’s where legal challenges to the new law are likely to end up, the column suggests.

It doesn’t present any polling evidence, and refers mainly to Facebook pages and commentary. The column says the legislature’s action to end most union bargaining rights for public employees, and the ensuing debate, are indeed ratcheting up interest in the Supreme Court contest.

While the campaigns of both candidates disavow fixed leanings of their candidate about ruling on such a challenge, the column has some intriguing political background:

“Kloppenburg has long supported Democrats financially and the campaign makes no secret of the fact she, during law school, interned for the liberal stalwart, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson. It also isn?t shy about criticizing a December press release by a Prosser campaign director saying Prosser would be a ‘complement’ to the new administration.

“Prosser, for his part, has said he wouldn?t personally have use the word ‘complement’ and describes himself as both non-partisan and in the middle of the court. According to an analysis by the Wisconsin Law Journal, he is, in fact, a much less predictable vote than other justices typically described as being on the conservative side.”

A national publication, Mother Jones, discusses the high-profile protests waged against the legislation. In the wake of the protests, it suggests, the high court contest could emerge as “a test of whether the energy of the past few weeks can translate into support at the ballot box.”

Since a four-way primary contest that Justice Prosser won easily in February, the Mother Jones article adds, “public opinion has shifted significantly away from [Republican Gov. Scott] Walker, so if Democrats can connect Prosser to the governor and his unpopular ‘repair’ bill, they might unseat the conservative front-runner.”

Just this week, Kloppenburg accused the incumbent at a public forum of  of favoring the agenda of Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP legislature (see Gavel Grab).

Both candidates in the general election qualified for public funding under a new Wisconsin law, aimed at curbing the influence of special interest spending in an election for the high court. To learn more about the contest, check out Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 12, 2011 (boomark / email).