Litigation

Will WI Court Election Become a Proxy Battle?

By Peter Hardin

There’s continuing talk in Wisconsin about turning a nonpartisan state Supreme Court election into a proxy fight over the state’s newly passed collective bargaining law, but a political scientist said little time is left for that to happen.

On April 5, voters will pick between incumbent Justice David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg. Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist, said labor backers may find it safer to focus on efforts to recall legislators with whom they disagree, according to an Associated Press article.

“You’ve got in one sense a safer set of targets that are clearly partisan and clearly a part of the events at the Capitol and the governor’s agenda,” Franklin said. “If you try to bring Prosser into it, you have a harder time explaining why (he) is a part of it.”

Justice Prosser is considered conservative-leaning and a member of the court’s 4-3 majority; he also is a former Republican Assembly speaker (see Gavel Grab). Kloppenburg is an assistant state attorney general. Both candidates qualified for public financing under a new state law aimed at reducing the influence of special interest spending in court elections.

Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, contended the labor debate over Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-collective bargaining effort would play a major role in the Supreme Court election.

“Over the last month, (Kloppenburg’s) campaign seems to have risen from relative obscurity and it’s now really going to be a race to watch,” he said.

Melissa Mulliken, campaign manager for Kloppenburg, said the candidate intends to remain impartial, as a good judge ought to do. Her counterpart with Justice Prosser’s campaign, Brian J. Nemoir, said it is unfair to the judge to make the election about Gov. Walker. He said the judge is not anybody’s puppet.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 15, 2011 (boomark / email).