2023 Spring Election |
From Weekly News email from Ben Wikler
Chair of the Wis Democratic Party
posted on Dec 5, 2022
Dear fellow Wisconsin Democrats,
This week, the field of state Supreme Court candidates expanded from three to four—and the stakes in the race came into sharp focus.
When Wisconsinites voted a few weeks ago, they voted for their right to make their own health care decisions and to love who they wish to love. They also voted in favor of democracy. The freedoms that voters fought for in the governor’s race—and the race for Attorney General, Senate, and down ballot as well—remain just as critical in the Spring election.
But two candidates for state Supreme Court are running with the goal of wielding our state’s highest judicial body as a weapon to advance a far-right anti-freedom agenda: Dan Kelly and, after her entry into the Supreme Court race this week, Jennifer Dorow.
The two other candidates, Judges Everett Mitchell and Janet Protasiewicz, would preside fairly and independently, grounded in principles of equal justice and the rule of law. Until one of them emerges after the February 21 primary, Wis Dems will be neutral between them. But it’s already clear that Dan Kelly and Jennifer Dorow would be absolute disasters on the state Supreme Court.
We remember Dan Kelly—because we beat him in April of 2020. Now, this Walker-appointed, Trump-endorsed former state Supreme Court justice is making another appearance. Kelly is a radical who pre-decided cases based on what his donors and friends want. He put the partisan special interests before the people of Wisconsin and the law. As a private attorney, he defended the GOP’s gerrymander in court in 2011; if he served on the state Supreme Court, he’d keep defending gerrymandered maps there. Kelly said this of affirmative action and slavery “morally, and as a matter of law, they are the same.” He also said that a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court case, which required the legal definitions of "marriage" and "spouse" be applied to same-sex couples, would devoid meaning from marriage as an institution. Wisconsinites were right to give him an early retirement in 2020. But now, an advocacy group controlled by Dick and Liz Uihlein—the country’s biggest GOP donors, who financed Stop the Steal and floods of the hideous ads attacking Mandela Barnes—has announced it will spend "millions of dollars to help educate voters in support of Justice Dan Kelly."
And now Dan Kally isn’t alone on the extreme-right flank: Jennifer Dorow announced her campaign on Wednesday. Dorow is capitalizing on the tragedy in Waukesha: presiding over the trial of the Waukesha Christmas parade massacre led to a ton of TV coverage and made her a minor celebrity. But the people who saw her on TV might not realize that she’s a hard-core right-wing partisan. A graduate of Pat Robertson’s far-right Regent University School of Law, she was appointed to the bench by Scott Walker, and has named Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision which decriminalized LGBTQ relationships, as among the "worst Supreme Court decisions of all time."
History has shown what a conservative, partisan court will do. The current GOP-backed majority selected a hyper-partisan gerrymander in our legislative maps that put the GOP a hair’s breadth away from dual-chamber supermajorities. The court banned absentee ballot drop boxes, made it illegal to assist family members or others in delivering their absentee ballots, and empowered our GOP-run state legislature to spend unlimited taxpayer dollars on private attorneys—leading to debacles like the Gableman investigation. Dorow and Kelly would push for more of the same. And the next court will rule on the 1849 abortion ban. A fair court would rule that this long-superseded law is void. But we know that neither Dorow nor Kelly would rule fairly.
This Supreme Court race is Wisconsin’s own referendum on abortion freedom. It’s Wisconsin’s referendum on democracy. It’s our one chance to end the authoritarian misrule of the far right.
But the Supreme Court race stands out, because its impact on all of our futures is so extraordinarily vast. We’ve got 123 days. Let’s make sure every Wisconsinite knows the stakes.
In solidarity,
Ben Wikler
Chair, WisDems
==============================
Check the links below and VOTE for either in the primary on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023
Judge Everett Mitchell
Judge Janet Protasiewicz
Chair of the Wis Democratic Party
posted on Dec 5, 2022
Dear fellow Wisconsin Democrats,
This week, the field of state Supreme Court candidates expanded from three to four—and the stakes in the race came into sharp focus.
When Wisconsinites voted a few weeks ago, they voted for their right to make their own health care decisions and to love who they wish to love. They also voted in favor of democracy. The freedoms that voters fought for in the governor’s race—and the race for Attorney General, Senate, and down ballot as well—remain just as critical in the Spring election.
But two candidates for state Supreme Court are running with the goal of wielding our state’s highest judicial body as a weapon to advance a far-right anti-freedom agenda: Dan Kelly and, after her entry into the Supreme Court race this week, Jennifer Dorow.
The two other candidates, Judges Everett Mitchell and Janet Protasiewicz, would preside fairly and independently, grounded in principles of equal justice and the rule of law. Until one of them emerges after the February 21 primary, Wis Dems will be neutral between them. But it’s already clear that Dan Kelly and Jennifer Dorow would be absolute disasters on the state Supreme Court.
We remember Dan Kelly—because we beat him in April of 2020. Now, this Walker-appointed, Trump-endorsed former state Supreme Court justice is making another appearance. Kelly is a radical who pre-decided cases based on what his donors and friends want. He put the partisan special interests before the people of Wisconsin and the law. As a private attorney, he defended the GOP’s gerrymander in court in 2011; if he served on the state Supreme Court, he’d keep defending gerrymandered maps there. Kelly said this of affirmative action and slavery “morally, and as a matter of law, they are the same.” He also said that a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court case, which required the legal definitions of "marriage" and "spouse" be applied to same-sex couples, would devoid meaning from marriage as an institution. Wisconsinites were right to give him an early retirement in 2020. But now, an advocacy group controlled by Dick and Liz Uihlein—the country’s biggest GOP donors, who financed Stop the Steal and floods of the hideous ads attacking Mandela Barnes—has announced it will spend "millions of dollars to help educate voters in support of Justice Dan Kelly."
And now Dan Kally isn’t alone on the extreme-right flank: Jennifer Dorow announced her campaign on Wednesday. Dorow is capitalizing on the tragedy in Waukesha: presiding over the trial of the Waukesha Christmas parade massacre led to a ton of TV coverage and made her a minor celebrity. But the people who saw her on TV might not realize that she’s a hard-core right-wing partisan. A graduate of Pat Robertson’s far-right Regent University School of Law, she was appointed to the bench by Scott Walker, and has named Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision which decriminalized LGBTQ relationships, as among the "worst Supreme Court decisions of all time."
History has shown what a conservative, partisan court will do. The current GOP-backed majority selected a hyper-partisan gerrymander in our legislative maps that put the GOP a hair’s breadth away from dual-chamber supermajorities. The court banned absentee ballot drop boxes, made it illegal to assist family members or others in delivering their absentee ballots, and empowered our GOP-run state legislature to spend unlimited taxpayer dollars on private attorneys—leading to debacles like the Gableman investigation. Dorow and Kelly would push for more of the same. And the next court will rule on the 1849 abortion ban. A fair court would rule that this long-superseded law is void. But we know that neither Dorow nor Kelly would rule fairly.
This Supreme Court race is Wisconsin’s own referendum on abortion freedom. It’s Wisconsin’s referendum on democracy. It’s our one chance to end the authoritarian misrule of the far right.
But the Supreme Court race stands out, because its impact on all of our futures is so extraordinarily vast. We’ve got 123 days. Let’s make sure every Wisconsinite knows the stakes.
In solidarity,
Ben Wikler
Chair, WisDems
==============================
Check the links below and VOTE for either in the primary on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023
Judge Everett Mitchell
Judge Janet Protasiewicz