Salvos fly ahead of primary
Three candidates tout credentials and take swipes at each other
Madison — Heading into Tuesday’s primary, the candidates for state Supreme Court are touting their credentials and taking swipes at each other over Gov. Scott Walker, an ad from a conservative group and how two of them interacted in the past.
The primary will narrow the field from three candidates to two for the April 5 general election. The winner will get a 10-year term on the high court.
The GOP governor appointed Rebecca Bradley to the Supreme Court in October to finish the term of Justice N. Patrick Crooks, who died in September. It was the third time Walker had appointed Bradley to a judgeship in as many years; he put her on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court bench in 2012 and the District 1 Court of Appeals in May 2015.
Running against her are Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Joe Donald and District 4 Appeals Court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg.
Kloppenburg in recent weeks launched an ad blasting Bradley for her ties to Walker and Donald for his past support of Bradley.
“The fact is Rebecca Bradley brings a very partisan background with her onto the court,” Kloppenburg said.
Donald similarly criticized Bradley for the appointments she received from Walker.
“She clearly represents an ideology and was promoted for representing that ideology,” Donald said. “It had nothing to do with experience because there really wasn’t any
experience there.”
Bradley said she was pleased Walker had appointed her to judgeships but said she wouldn’t comment on whether she thought he had done a good job because she doesn’t take a public position on what other branches of government are doing.
“I think it’s disappointing, especially to the voters, that my opponents continue to introduce partisanship into what is a nonpartisan race and a nonpartisan position,” Bradley said. “I’ve been running a very positive campaign that is focused on the credentials and experience that I’m bringing to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, along with my judicial philosophy.”
Kloppenburg and Donald contend it is Bradley who is the partisan because she is getting help from the state Republican Party.
Donald is running an ad saying he wants to keep politics off the court. It doesn’t mention his opponents, but it shows a brief image of Bradley with Walker.
Bradley isn’t running an ad, but a new conservative group called the Wisconsin Alliance for Reform has spent $1 million on one promoting her. It uses footage that Bradley’s campaign shot and posted online.
Donald called the ad “highly suspect” and said the group paying for it would want something in return. “Someone’s spending a ton of money on her to make sure she retains the seat,” he said.
Kloppenburg said the ad appears to be a sign Bradley is coordinating with an outside group, which Bradley denied.
“She says she wouldn’t coordinate,” Kloppenburg said. “It looks like coordination. It calls into question her integrity.”
Bradley said she didn’t work with the group and hadn’t heard of the Wisconsin Alliance for Reform until she learned of the ad.
Her opponents argued the only reason to post B-roll footage online would be so someone could use it for a supportive ad, but Bradley said it was typical to post “all kinds of video and photos” online as part of a political campaign.
Past backing
Donald endorsed Bradley when she ran for a full term on the Milwaukee County court, swore her in after she won that election and agreed to be a reference on her application for the appeals court appointment. But Donald wrote a letter of support for another judge for the appeals court position and said he had ranked Bradley as fourth among four judges seeking the job.
“The fact that Joe Donald supported Rebecca Bradley twice . . . shows the voters that he is not the clear and strong voice who can articulate the differences between Governor’s Walker’s choice for the court, Rebecca Bradley, and the people’s choice,” Kloppenburg said.
Donald said he supported Bradley earlier because he thought she would be good at that level.
“I believed that she had potential to be a good trial court judge, and I still believe that she has that potential and it’s my goal to make sure that she is given every opportunity to actualize that potential as a trial court judge, but I don’t think she’s qualified to be on our state Supreme Court,” Donald said.
Bradley said Donald had offered her his unsolicited support for her circuit court race and she considered them friends. She said she was surprised when Donald told WisPolitics.com recently that he believed he had been “bamboozled” by supporting her.
“When I hear those types of comments, it doesn’t sound like the Joe Donald I thought I knew,” Bradley said.
In 2011, Donald was listed as endorsing conservative Justice David Prosser on Prosser’s campaign website. That year, Prosser narrowly won re-election over Kloppenburg.
Donald said despite the listing, he had not endorsed Prosser and had voted for Kloppenburg.
In other recent Supreme Court elections, Donald endorsed conservatives such as Patience Roggensack and Annette Ziegler and liberals such as Shirley Abrahamson and Ann Walsh Bradley.
Ann Walsh Bradley, who won re-election in 2015, is not related to Rebecca Bradley.