Litigation

Candidates Eye Public Funds in WI Race

By Peter Hardin

Two challengers and an incumbent plan to take advantage next year of a new Wisconsin law providing public financing for state Supreme Court candidates.

One expected candidate, Madison lawyer Joel Winnig, doesn’t really expect to win election. Yet he hopes he can help boost the state’s public financing law through his candidacy and bring a positive touch to an elections process that has suffered from nasty politicking, according to a Capital Times article.

Also expected to run are the incumbent, Justice David Prosser, and Marla Stephens,  Appellate Division Director for the State Public Defender, the Wisconsin Law Journal reported.

The high spending associated with a state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin could be reduced by the new law, according to the Capital Times, although Winnig contends the new statute doesn’t even the playing field for special interest groups.

“There’s not enough money to counteract whatever Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce or Wisconsin Right to Life would choose to spend,” Winnig said.

“The good news for (Prosser) is what they would choose to spend would be supporting him and destroying whoever would be running against him. So I’m aware that if I even accomplish what I want to accomplish, I’ll go from being ignored to destroyed.”

You can read about Wisconsin?s law, and about debates over legality of public financing plans for judicial elections, in Gavel Grab. You also can learn more from Justice at Stake?s issues page on public financing laws.

Full post as published by The Gavel on November 15, 2010 (boomark / email).