I don’t want to bury the lede, so just check this out from Republican Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser:
As the deeply divided state Supreme Court wrestled over whether to force one member off criminal cases last year, Justice David Prosser exploded at Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson behind closed doors, calling her a “bitch” and threatening to “destroy” her. …
“In a fit of temper, you were screaming at the chief; calling her a ‘bitch,’ threatening her with ‘…I will destroy you’; and describing the means of destruction as a war against her ‘and it won’t be a ground war,'” [Justice Ann Walsh] Bradley wrote in a Feb. 18, 2010, e-mail to Prosser and others.
Prosser acknowledged his outburst, but said he was justified – and then proceeded to blame it on the woman he had verbally assaulted:
“I probably overreacted, but I think it was entirely warranted…. They (Abrahamson and Justice Ann Walsh Bradley) are masters at deliberately goading people into perhaps incautious statements. This is bullying and abuse of very, very long standing.”
Ordinarily, a state supreme court race would be a bit too down in the weeds even for SSP, but the April 5th contest between Prosser and JoAnne Kloppenburg has special resonance. Prosser is part of the court’s 4-3 conservative bloc – a bloc whose control over the court could be erased with a Kloppenburg victory. While the election is officially non-partisan, I haven’t hesitated to pin party labels on Prosser: He was a Republican member of the state Assembly for almost two decades, and even served as Speaker for a time. He’s been a consistent right-wing vote on the court, and went so far as to say he deserved re-election because he’d be a Scott Walker lackey:
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 compliment [sic] to both the new administration and legislature.
The “new administration and legislature” Prosser is referring to of course means Walker and the Republican-controlled state Senate and Assembly. Walker’s union-busting legislation will ver likely come before the high court, and Prosser recently went even further and accused his opponents of wanting “someone on the Court who will be an almost automatic vote against anything that comes out of the new legislature” – which of course can only suggest he thinks he’s just the opposite.
Kloppenburg is relying on public financing, which means she cannot accept monetary donations. Fortunately, third-party groups are springing into action, including the liberal Greater Wisconsin Committee, which is up with an ad hitting the themes I’ve discussed here:
Prosser himself is already on the air, and right-wing groups are sure to fire back (the Club for Growth spent $321K during the primary). This will be a hard race to win, but it’s an important one to focus on.
P.S. One site you should definitely be following for this race is Illusory Tenant.
The bitch asked for it! Or rather, she egged him on to make controversial statements in a classic bullying technique…
Talk about “legislating from the bench”. Another case of IOKIYaR?
who follows Supreme Court-related issues, the Wisconsin court has a reputation for being one of the nastiest in the country. I had no idea.
Last year the Wisconsin Supreme Court split 3-3 in an ethics case involving a different conservative justice.
I realize the odds are long on anyone having an inside scoop on this race, and our chances of knocking out Prosser, but it sure would be nice if someone popped up.
If that story in the Journal-Sentinal article doesn’t make it into a TV ad, that’s political malpractice. Ordinary voters will absorb and respond to that, in our candidate’s favor.
…and he’s not happy about it… a result of a 2009 Doyle sponsored law to get money out of judicial politics. Outside spending is still a question mark, since the law addressed that as well (but, is being held up in the courts). Club for Growth has spent money on Prosser, but it’s unclear how much.
Unfortunately, Kloppenburg is not the best candidate politically. She was selected as a “sacrificial lamb” type of candidate against what was once considered a shoe-in. She’s going to need to step it up to close the deal. There will be a televised debate. Normally, no one would watch those types of thing, but this year, I’m sure it will be different.
April turnout is another question, although Wisconsinites are used to elections in April–most non partisan office elections such as judges, mayors, etc. are held in April. Still, I can only imagine that turnout is typically depressed in these affairs. It is absolutely crucial that folks up there step up GOTV operations. In a low turnout election that favors the incumbent, that kind of GOTV can really swing the tide!
But, it won’t help if the candidate doesn’t close the deal. She needs to do what she can to sell herself to voters as the true independent jurist up for election, otherwise, all the GOTV in the world won’t get her a win.
I hope someone polls this one… We need to see where we stand. I still believe we are the underdog, regardless of our recent breaks.
fyi
I actually just went to a forum featuring Kloppenburg. She is not the most dynamic, but she certainly is working as hard as possible under public financing criss-crossing the state speaking to various groups. Ordinarily in these type of elections, Prosser would win. However, the recall drives have organized Dems in a way not seen even in 08. Additionally, here in Milwaukee County, there is a race to replace Scott Walker as County Exec. With all the anger at Walker, there will be a big Dem turnout. There has been no polling on this race, but these races tend to be low turnout races which depend on base turnout. With the Dem base as energized as it is, I would say this race is tossup at worst.
The general direction of this sounds very much like the workings of the Michigan State Supreme Court, where you have a dysfunctional conservative bloc, with mysognist/sexist justices. Only in our case, one of the female Republican justices secretly tapped conversations, then resigned allowed the Democratic governor to put in a new justice, and then trying to ensure his re-election by releasing the taps on the eve of the 2010 election. It didn’t work.
State supreme courts have been a battleground, for years, with the Republican typically paying far more attention (and money) to the races, which is why you have some incredibly conservative courts in even blue and purple states. Dems better wisen up.
ref http://judgepedia.org/index.ph…
Feb 15 top 2 primary results here — http://judgepedia.org/index.ph… — at least on the surface, those results at least seem discouraging, but the numbers can be disregarded because of?
One other thing I don’t know — and to me, isn’t made clear in the diary — would Kloppenberg get to rule on the recent lower court decision on the new WI anti-collective bargaining law? Would it perhaps depend on when the appeal is brought to the WI Supremes?
One literally: I’ve seen a couple of hand-stenciled Kloppenburg signs in Eau Claire, plus one Prosser sign. I NEVER see Supreme Court signs in that city, so that tells you a little about the growing interest.
One figuratively: The only ad I’ve seen so far on TV is the GWC ad a few times. This is different from seeing only pro-Prosser ads before the primary. I do expect this to change with the CFG money ready to flood the zone.
The rest of WI media seems to be completely ignoring this story. Maybe ‘cos it uses the word “bitch” or whatnot, but no one outside of Journal Sentinel readers is going to hear anything about this.
This should be a huge, huge story… I hope some people try to make enough noise about this to force the media to cover this…