Last year’s state Supreme Court race was the ugliest Wisconsin
voters have ever witnessed. In fact, the candidate who won and now sits
on the state’s highest court—Michael Gableman—is still facing the
fallout from his distorted, race-baiting campaign commercials, which
have been condemned by observers from all sides of the political
spectrum.
So it wasn’t surprising that Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm warned a current candidate for the state Supreme Court—Jefferson County Judge Randy Koschnick—for inserting political code words into his campaign.
Koschnick has argued that his rival in the April election, longtime Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, is a “judicial activist” who “legislates from the bench”—code words that conservatives use to describe judges who they believe are liberal.
Koschnick has also claimed that 60% of Abrahamson’s decisions have favored defendants, implying that the chief justice sides with criminals over law enforcement. “We’re at opposite ends of the spectrum,” Koschnick told a crowd of lawyers and judges at a Feb. 4 Milwaukee Bar Association candidate forum.
He
and Abrahamson have different philosophies, he explained. “I am a
judicial conservative,” Koschnick said. “I do not believe it is proper
to legislate from the bench.”
District Attorney Chisholm, who
filled in for Abrahamson at the forum because she was in Madison
hearing oral arguments before the court, countered that Koschnick’s
allegations weren’t “appropriate” for a candidate for a nonpartisan
office. “Judges shouldn’t be in the business of predicting or
signaling or winking or nudging what direction they’re going to go when
they decide a case,” Chisholm said.
He added that Abrahamson has been a
“remarkable steward for the court system and the criminal justice
system,” and she defies political stereotyping because her four
appointments for chief judge of Milwaukee County Circuit Court have
been strong and nonpartisan.
“You don’t have a judicial
activist among them,” he said.
In fact, Chisholm said, Koschnick’s
allegations about judicial philosophy seemed dangerously similar to
Justice Gableman’s attack ads in last spring’s election.
Koschnick
and Gableman both present themselves as pro-law-enforcement, prolife
and pro-business. While Gableman’s biggest backer, Wisconsin
Manufacturers & Commerce, appears to be sitting out this campaign
because of pressure from its moderate members, people are concerned
that some other right-wing front group will be used to purchase
negative ads. Koschnick has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund, the Milwaukee Police Supervisors Organization and Wisconsin Right to Life’s PAC.
Open-records requests have revealed that Koschnick used his courthouse phone to contact Wisconsin Right to Life and the Wisconsin Family Council, the ultraconservative Christian organization headed by Julaine Appling, who led the fight to add an anti-same-sex marriage amendment to the state constitution in 2006.
“That’s what I’m concerned about here,” Chisholm said. “Judge Koschnick has, through his campaign, courted some of those same issues in the exact same way [as Gableman]. That’s what I caution him on. I ask him not to do that. Move away from that. Take the high ground. Argue the issues. But don’t go in this direction. We’re better than this. We should remain better than this.”
What’s your take?
Write: editor@shepex.com or comment on this story online at www.expressmilwaukee.com.
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