Protasiewicz ads draw scrutiny
Ads bashing Kelly for not recusing leave out facts
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz is spending millions to flood airwaves with two ads in this year’s race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court that contain significant factual omissions in their criticism of her opponent, former Justice Daniel Kelly.
The ads are focused on the issue of recusal and Kelly’s voting record while he served on the state’s highest court from Aug. 1, 2016, through Aug. 1, 2020.
In one of the ads, Protasiewicz accuses Kelly of using his connections to the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty to benefit the organization’s clients when he heard six cases between 2017 and June 2019. The ad points out that Kelly accepted more than $14,000 in campaign contributions from WILL board members and served on an advisory panel for the firm before being appointed to the Supreme Court by former Gov. Scott Walker in 2016.
The WILL cases were in 2017 to June 2019. Kelly did not start fundraising until after June 2019, spokesman Ben Voelkel said, so those donations would not have influenced his decisions.
Kelly served on WILL’s Litigation Advisory Board. The group met in September 2011 and August 2012 and then disbanded, WILL spokesman Pat Garrett said.
“Neither it — nor any member of it — had any role in WILL taking on any of these six cases,” Garrett said. “These cases were never discussed with Daniel Kelly. Members of our board and employees of WILL are free to support candidates of any political persuasion just like any citizen of Wisconsin. Judges are not required to recuse themselves because one of the lawyers before them made a campaign contribution.”
During a Milwaukee Press Club event Tuesday, Kelly called Protasiewicz “sloppy” and “slanderous” in her ads.
“She can say a lie that is horrible in the space of 30 seconds, it takes a few minutes to disabuse people of that lie,” Kelly said.
Protasiewicz was invited to the Press Club event but declined.
When Kelly was appointed by Walker to replace retiring Justice David Prosser WILL President and General Counsel Rick Esenberg released a statement.