The upcoming Supreme Court election is more important than ever in light of the fact that Milwaukee City Attorney Grant F. Langley questions the constitutionality of Governor Scott Walker's budget repair bill. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal reports:
The constitutionality of proposed changes in Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill that would require pension fund contributions from public employees, including members of the city of Milwaukee Employees Retirement System, was questioned in an opinion released Monday by Milwaukee City Attorney Grant Langley.
(snip)
In a letter to Walker, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett requested that State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen review the opinion and provide Barrett with an assurance that Walker's office and state legislative drafters reviewed those issues during the drafting process of Walker's bill.
The results of the February 15th Supreme Court Primary were:
David Prosser 227,812 55% (incumbent)
JoAnne Kloppenburg 104,596 25%
Marla Stephens 45,151 11%
Joel Winnig 37,811 9%
Only the top two candidates advanced to the April 5th General Election. They are:
Candidate: David T. Prosser, Jr.
Age: 68
Family: Single
Address: 57 Golf Course Road, Madison
Current Job: Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court
Political Experience: District Attorney, Outagamie County, 1977 to 1978; State Representative, 1979 to 1996; Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1998 to present.
Other public service: Member, National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, 1983 to 1996, 2005 to 2007; Wisconsin Judicial Council, 2002 to 2006; Wisconsin Sentencing Commission, 1984 to 1988, 1994 to 1995; Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Commission, 1993 to 1999; Wisconsin Council on Criminal Justice, 1980 to 1983.
Education: Bachelor's degree, DePauw University; law degree, UW-Madison.
From the Prosser Campaign website -- My experience clearly separates me from my opponent. I have served more than 12 years as a Supreme Court Justice; worked on real criminal justice issues in the United States Department of Justice and as a county district attorney; and spent 18 years making law and representing people as a Wisconsin lawmaker. I am the only judicial conservative in the race. The April election will determine whether the court continues a common sense application of the rule of law or whether it will turn back to the judicial activism that Wisconsin voters have repeatedly rejected.
Candidate: JoAnne Kloppenburg
Age: 57
Family: Married, three children
Address: 2318 Rowley Avenue, Madison
Current job: Assistant attorney general, state Department of Justice
Political experience: None
Other public service: Peace Corps volunteer, 1976 to 1979; mentor with the Dane County Bar Association; English as a Second Language tutor; coordinator of the DOJ Extern Program; member, Legal Association for Women; member, Regent Neighborhood Association Board; member, Legal Action board of directors, 1991 to 1993.
Education: Bachelor's degree, Yale University; master's degree, Princeton University; law degree, UW-Madison.
From the Kloppenburg Campaign website -- We need a change on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. I ask for your support to return independence to the Court and to help the Court focus – not on partisan politics or personalities – but on the important work we elect Justices to do.
Supreme Court Justices should not act as advocates for any cause or group nor as legislators. Rather, Wisconsin residents deserve to have confidence that judges are impartial and independent decision-makers who apply the law fairly and clearly based on the facts. That is what my background and broad legal experience have prepared me to do. That is the kind of Justice I will be.
Here's a voting guide from the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin... They don't endorse candidates.
My big problem with this whole campaign is that neither candidate wants to claim a political party. The stakes are HUGE though, not only because of the possible case around Walker's budge repair bill, but because this is a 10 year appointment. 2021, folks!!! That's the next time you'll be able to vote on who sits in this particular chair. Kloppenburg looks like the candidate for me (I didn't vote in the primary... I had no idea!), but I'd like to hear what the rest of you think about this VERY IMPORTANT ELECTION.
Additional information for this diary was obtained from: The Wisconsin State Journal
Updated by PvtJarHead at Tue Mar 1, 2011, 06:17:48 PM
[h/t to Ophelia from the comments.
As reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal:
A candidate for the state's high court is taking a swing at the campaign of Justice David Prosser for saying he would serve as a complement to Republicans who will run the governor's office and Legislature next year.
"For a sitting judge to promise that he will work to further the ends of the other two branches of government shows an enormous disregard for the separation of powers and the role of the court as an independent, impartial body that ought to promise just one thing: to decide cases on the law and the facts brought forth in those cases," said a statement released Thursday by Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg.
(snip)
Kloppenburg was responding to a news release issued Wednesday by Prosser's campaign announcing he had hired Brian Nemoir as his campaign director.
Nemoir was quoted in that release as saying: "Our campaign efforts will include building an organization that will return Justice Prosser to the bench, protecting the conservative judicial majority and acting as a common sense complement to both the new administration and Legislature."
Updated by PvtJarHead at Tue Mar 1, 2011, 07:43:38 PM
I've been trying to see if I couldn't get JoAnne Kloppenburg an ActBlue page, but then found this at her campaign website:
There are many ways to contribute to the campaign, but giving money isn’t one of them!
That’s because The Kloppenburg for Justice Committee is limiting fundraising, spending and refusing special interest money through Wisconsin’s public financing law. By law, we cannot accept any financial contributions for the remainder of the campaign. Both candidates in this race are participating in public financing.