Litigation

Wisconsin Judicial Race Still ?Tame,? Article Says

By Lissette Villarruel

With a month to go, the closely watched Wisconsin Supreme Court race has been ?relatively tame,? according to an article by the Associated Press.

Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson maintains a sizeable fund-raising advantage over her opponent,  Jefferson County Circuit Judge Randy Koschnick. Neither has run television advertisements, and major interest groups that had been actively involved in previous races have so far stayed on the sidelines. And as Abrahamson is highly experienced (33 years on the court) and well regarded, conservatives may be less inclined to support Koschnick, the article speculates.

However, watchdog groups like the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC) believe that the silence from special interest groups does not indicate that the coast is clear. ??There?s still plenty of time,?? declared Mike McCabe, director of WDC. ??They could still jump in.?? The Justice at Stake Campaign was also quoted as saying special interests group could quickly become involved. The article argues much the same:

Just because three groups involved in the last couple races are out doesn’t mean other like-minded interests won’t step in. And typically in a low-profile election like this one, where turnout likely will be small, big money doesn’t start getting spent on TV ads until the last week or two.

In the previous year?s race, business lobbying group Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce spent approximately $1.76 million running ads against incumbent Justice Louis Butler in favor of future-winner Michael Gableman. The vicious race culminated in a particularly misleading advertisement by Gableman, falsely charging Butler with the release of a criminal. A storyboard of the advertisement can be found here.

The candidates have traded shots on the issue of recusal.

According to an article in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, Abrahamson has responded to Koschnick?s accusations that the justice unethically heard cases involving campaign donors with the same argument.

Last week, Koschnick challenged Abrahamson to either return $11,500 in contributions from lawyers or recuse from the case that involved them. This week, Abrahamson fired back with court records demonstrating that Koschnick had decided cases involving lawyers who had donated to his 1999 campaign. Although he had criticized Abrahamson for refusing to return donations, Koschnick now maintains that ??If a lawyer has given you money in the past, and has a case come up in the future, you can look at it case-by-case.??

To learn more about previous Wisconsin races, you can visit other Gavel Grab postings.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 09, 2009 (boomark / email).