Hopefuls sprint across state.
Clinton wades into court race; Trump backtracks on tweet
It turns out even in a presidential race, all politics is local.
As candidates sprinted across Wisconsin Saturday in a bid for votes and delegates, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton jumped straight into the hard-fought race for state Supreme Court.
During a speech to Milwaukee Democrats, Clinton launched an attack against Justice Rebecca Bradley over her controversial newspaper writings about birth control, rape and gay rights as a student at Marquette University more than 20 years ago.
“There is no place on any Supreme Court or any court in this country, no place at all for Rebecca Bradley’s decadeslong track record of dangerous rhetoric against women, survivors of sexual assault and the LGBT community,” Clinton said.
She added, “No to discrimination, no to hate speech and no to Bradley.”
Bradley has apologized for her writings. A spokesman for Bradley accused her opponent, Appeals Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg, of turning to Clinton to carry out her attacks.
“Kloppenburg’s claims of independence have fallen flat with the voters. Now that multiple polls show her losing, she’s turned to one of the most partisan figures in the nation, Democrat Hillary Clinton, to carry on Kloppenburg’s personal attacks,” spokesman Luke Martz said.
A Marquette University Law School poll last week showed Bradley leading Kloppenburg 41% to 36%, with 18% undecided.
The stunning back-andforth between Clinton and the Bradley campaign capped a day of frenetic politicking across the state.
Republican front-runner Donald Trump hopscotched to three events as he tried to regain his momentum. Ohio Gov. John Kasich searched for votes in southern Wisconsin and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, leading in the polls in Wisconsin, met the media in Ashwaubenon.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, barnstormed the state before joining Clinton at the Democratic Party Founders Day Gala 2016 in Milwaukee.
During an hourlong speech in Rothschild, Trump was not as harsh about Gov. Scott Walker and how Wisconsin has fared under him as he was earlier in the week. But Trump did again mock Walker for frequently wearing Harley-Davidson gear.
“He doesn’t look like the bikers supporting me,” Trump said. “The bikers love me!”
Trump took a tougher tone when he brought up his testy exchange with WTMJ-AM (620) host Charlie Sykes, whom Trump called a “whack job.” Trump said he thought he’d donewell in his interview with Sykes.
“Everybody who would listen to that show would vote for me,” Trump said.
Trump reminded the crowd, “I’m self-funding. I hope people appreciate it. It means a lot. It means a lot. It means I don’t owe anybody anything.”
Trying to regain his footing after a very tough week, Trump told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd it was a mistake to retweet a photo of his wife, Melania, a former model, alongside an unflattering shot of Cruz’s wife, Heidi, that said the two images were “worth a thousand words.”
Trump — who earlier had tweeted that he might “spill the beans” about Heidi Cruz — was responding to an ad an anti-Trump group ran in Utah that showed a risqué photo of Melania Trump.
“If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t have sent it,” Trump said of the retweet in the column.
In Janesville, Kasich took questions for an hour on a range of subjects, including criminal justice reform.
“It’s really easy when somebody is a criminal to just disregard them,” Kasich said. “The only thing I try to remember is there was a time when a mother held a baby in her arms and thought that he or she was going to grow up to be special.”
Kasich sprinkled quips and jokes throughout the event, drawing plenty of laughter, but the biggest came when he closed the town hall by playing “Sorry” by Justin Bieber. “I happen to like this song,” Kasich said.
In Ashwaubenon, Cruz settled into a movie theater seat with a small tub of popcorn and a few hundred supporters surrounding him to watch “God's Not Dead 2,” a movie about a schoolteacher prosecuted for quoting a Bible verse in response to a student’s question.
“Absolutely we have a straightforward path to winning the nomination— to winning before the convention, to earning 1,237 delegates,” Cruz told reporters, when asked about his chances.
Cruz said he is devoting his energy to “earning the vote, to winning the states and earning the delegates to win a majority before the convention.”
“Wisconsin is going to have a powerful voice in that,” he said. “Not just the 42 delegates. But all across the country, people are looking to this great state.”
Cruz said he was energized by a new poll in Pennsylvania that put him ahead of Trump.
“But it is entirely possible that nobody gets to 1,237 — that we go into the convention with nobody crossing that threshold and we'll have a contested convention,” he acknowledged.
Cruz said Trump will bring his delegates to the convention, and he will bring his.
“Then it will be a battle at the convention to see who can earn a majority of the delegates — delegates elected by the people,” Cruz said.
Cruz, who has rounded up establishment support in Wisconsin, picked an endorsement from Republican U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble, who represents the 8th Congressional District in the northeastern part of the state.
Speaking to 1,500 Democrats in Milwaukee, Sanders made his pitch that polls show he’s the best candidate to carry the fight to Republicans in the fall.
“We have to make sure Donald
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL SATURDAY
At a Democratic Party dinner in Milwaukee, Hillary Clinton launched a broadside against state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pushed “grass-roots activism.”
Donald Trump tried to regain his momentum in three appearances across the state while Ohio Gov. John Kasich touted his experience and electability before supporters.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he had a “straightforward path to winning the nomination” as he met the media in Ashwaubenon.
COMING SUNDAY
Sanders has rallies in Wausau and Madison; Cruz has events in Green Bay, Wausau and Eau Claire; Trump has an appearance in West Allis. Follow our coverage on JSOnline .com and on Twitter with #JSPolitics.
Trump doesn’t become president of the United States,” he said.
Sanders, his voice hoarse, said Democrats need a sense of vibrancy and energy that the party doesn’t yet have.
“We need to bring in millions of young people who have never voted in their lives, and I’m proud many of those young people are coming into our campaign,” he said.
Sanders also called out Walker, telling the crowd, “If you want to know what kind of president I would be, think about all of the things Governor Walker does, and I will do exactly the opposite.”
Clinton said she would make it her mission to help Democrats up and down the ticket.
“I will have your back against Governor Walker and the tea party Legislature,” she said, vowing to help Democrats regain ground in congressional and legislative races.
Ashley Luthern in Janesville and Mary Spicuzza in Milwaukee contributed to this report.