Litigation

Three Qualify for Public Financing in WI

By Peter Hardin

Three candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court have gotten approval for public financing of their campaigns, amounting to a $100,000 IOU for each leading up to the February primary.

For the first time, the three will get to use the campaign cash as a result of  Wisconsin?s new public campaign financing law. Election officials determined this week that the three qualify, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article; a fourth candidate did not apply. The new law, meanwhile, is facing a constitutional challenge in court.

For a candidate surviving the primary, the law provides another $300,000 in public funding for the April 5 general election. If the privately financed candidate spends heavily, a qualifying candidate for public dollars can get additional funds.

The candidates who applied for public funding (see Gavel Grab) and will get it are incumbent Supreme Court Justice David Prosser and two challengers, Assistant Wisconsin Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg and Madison lawyer Joel Winning.

Marla Stephens, director of the state public defender?s office appellate division, did not apply to receive public dollars for her campaign. She recently told the Journal Sentinel, “I can’t build a credible statewide campaign on $300,000.”

Kloppenburg, on the other hand, spoke favorably of the new campaign law. Public financing, she said, is one way to show that “justice is not for sale.” She added, “I think that the big money special interests and excesses of the recent campaigns have undermined the independence and impartiality of the court.”

Jay Heck of Common Cause Wisconsin told WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio that the legislature passed the public funding law with  past state Supreme Court elections — filled with costly attack ads –  in mind.

?That created a real backlash among many Wisconsin voters because the campaigns were very negative, they were very nasty and there was a general feeling that this was not the type of election for the state?s highest court that really was something that people thought highly of,? Heck said.

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