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Why this year's race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court could be the most expensive court battle ever [1]

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Date: 2023-02-20  

Kelly’s campaign said in response that he “took a call from RPW Chairman Hitt on the subject of Republican electors and was asked if he was in the loop about this issue and Justice Kelly stated he was not.” It added that the candidate “believes Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States.” Bice’s article also revealed that Kelly has received $120,000 from the Wisconsin GOP and Republican National Committee, with the most recent payment occurring in December. The former justice told a party meeting last June that he was being paid to work on “election integrity issues.”

Both the liberals running in Tuesday’s contest, Dane County Judge Everett Mitchell and Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz, were quick to attack Kelly as a partisan extremist, while the other conservative contender, Waukesha County Judge Jennifer Dorow, remained silent.

Kelly, though, has continued to make waves in other ways during the final days of the campaign by once again refusing to say if he’d endorse Dorow if she beats him out for a spot in the April general election. In explaining his reticence, Kelly once more brought up Justice Brian Hagedorn, who has occasionally departed from his fellow conservatives on key rulings. “I think it’s just terribly presumptuous to say that I have to endorse her blind,” Kelly said of Dorow, adding, “And, especially after Brian Hagedorn, I’m just not doing blind endorsements.” Dorow herself has pledged to support Kelly if it comes down to it, arguing, “I'm not going to take the chance to take someone out so that the left can win this election.”

No one has released a single poll of the race, but the one set of hard numbers we do have shows Protasiewicz maintaining her dominant advantage in the money race. Wisconsin requires candidates to report any donations of $1,000 or more received since the most recent fundraising period ended on Feb. 6, and Protasiewicz has taken in $530,000 over the last two weeks. This number, which does not factor in small donations, is more than four times what her other three opponents have reported during this time combined: Dorow outpaced Kelly, $84,000 to $53,000 among large donors, while Mitchell brought in just $12,000.

That's helped fuel an expensive contest: Altogether, $7 million has been spent on advertising through Thursday, by the candidates and their allies. According to data collected by Kantar Media/CMAG and compiled for the Brennan Center, Protasiewicz has spent $1.1 million compared to $402,000 for Dorow on the airwaves. Protasiewicz’s advertising has largely focused on her support for abortion rights, while Dorow has emphasized how she presided over a high-profile trial that saw a man named Darrell Brooks sentenced to life in prison for killing six people at the 2021 Waukesha Christmas parade.

Kelly hasn't run any ads himself, but he’s received $2.4 million in support from Fair Courts America, a super PAC funded by megadonors Dick and Liz Uihlein. One other outside group has also spent heavily: A Better Wisconsin Together, a liberal organization, has deployed $1.8 million to run spots accusing Dorow of issuing too-lenient sentences to convicted criminals, a tactic aimed at hurting her chances against Kelly, whom progressive would rather face.

While the two conservatives have feuded on the campaign trail, they've refrained from attacking each other on the airwaves. However, a pair of right-wing groups, the Wisconsin Alliance for Reform and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, has spent a combined $735,000 attacking Protasiewicz as soft on crime. A short time later, she hit back with her own ad, arguing that Dorow and Kelly were the ones who hadn’t done enough to keep Wisconsinites safe. (Mitchell has received no major outside help or opposition.)

It’s possible that two candidates with the same ideological orientation will advance to April, though that would be a major surprise. If control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is on the line as everyone expects, however, the second round will be far more pricey. In fact, it may well shatter records: The Brennan Center reports that the biggest outlay on a supreme court contest in American history was the $15.2 million expended in a 2004 race for the top court in Illinois. This year's race in Wisconsin is already almost halfway there, though the Illinois outlays would be about $24.1 million in today's dollars.

Help progressives flip this seat and take control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court! Donate $9 to Daily Kos-endorsed Judge Janet Protaseiwicz today!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/20/2154065/-Why-this-year-s-race-for-the-Wisconsin-Supreme-Court-could-be-the-most-expensive-court-battle-ever

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