Litigation

Primary Approaches in WI Court Contest

By Peter Hardin

Will Tuesday’s primary in the contest for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat provide a test of the state’s new public campaign finance law?

A Madison Capital Times article asserts that is the case. The article has an intriguing take on the primary. It portrays incumbent Justice David Prosser as likely to emerge as one of the two top vote-getters, and it asks implicitly whether the other candidate who survives will be able to raise the money needed to seriously challenge an incumbent.

Justice Prosser and candidates Joel Winnig and JoAnne Kloppenburg are accepting public financing under the new state law. Candidate Marla Stephens is not. Justice Prosser is conservative, the article says, while the other three are liberal.

Stephens has calculated that if she survives the primary, she’ll need all the money that a privately-financed candidate can raise to counter high spending expected from third-party groups “that helped to change the balance of power from liberal to conservative on the high court in the past few years,” according to the article.

Publicly financed candidates are assured $300,000 apiece in the general election. They can also seek “rescue funds” to counteract independent expenditures. That provision of the new state law has come under legal challenge (see Gavel Grab).

The Capital Times article suggests that a if a publicly financed candidate opposes Justice Prosser in the general election,  efforts to gain name recognition on a level with him would probably eat up the $300,000, leaving the contest vulnerable to big spending by special interest groups.

These other reports and commentaries were published: “Supreme Court?s renewal begins with primary,” by John Nichols in the Madison Capital Times; “Voters to narrow field in Supreme Court race,” from Wisconsin Radio Network; “Ad won’t trigger additional funds for court candidates,” in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; and “Many Voters Lack Information About Supreme Court candidates, Professor Says,” from WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio.

The Green Bay Press Gazette has published guest columns by the candidates, available by clicking on a candidate’s name: Justice Prosser, “Securing funds, bringing peace to court are major challenges for Wisconsin Supreme Court;” Joel Winnig, “Supreme Court belongs to the people of Wisconsin;” JoAnne Kloppenburg, “Imperative to have elections free of big money, impartial justices;” and Marla Stephens, “Supreme Court should honor promise of justice for all.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on February 14, 2011 (boomark / email).