More Sleaze in Wis Supremes Race

I got a helpful mailer the other day. It’s my “Nonpartisan Voter Guide for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”

This even-handed, strictly fact-based document provided me with valuable, nonpartisan and unbiased data on candidates Chris Taylor and Maira Lazar. It pointed out, for example, that Taylor had worked for Planned Parenthood and was a long-time supporter of reproductive rights while Lazar had, as an assistant attorney general “under” Scott Walker, worked on legal cases that limited abortion rights. Nitpickers would point out that assistant attorney generals don’t work for governors, but for the attorney general.

It went on to point out, in it’s clinical way, that Taylor has been endorsed by all the liberal members of the Court while Lazar snagged the endorsements of Walker and hard-right Republican Congressman Glenn Grothman, both of whom are so very popular here in Madison.

Now, I’m sure it’s totally irrelevant that I live in a ward where I and 90% of my neighbors voted for Kamala Harris. No, I’m absolutely sure that unbiased, nonpartisan information like this was also provided in, say, Washington County which went overwhelmingly for Trump and in which Grothman is very popular. I mean why should anyone be denied this crucial information so that they can make an informed decision?

I’m sure my neighbors here on Monroe Street sat down after dinner to study and discuss the facts provided and struggle with the gut-wrenching decision of which candidate to vote for: the Planned Parenthood advocate supported by all the liberals on the Court or the anti-choice, Scott Walker tool. Some of us will pray over this decision while more of us will meditate on it or discuss it with friends at the Unitarian meeting house. Study groups will form, members arriving with their heavily underlined and annotated Nonpartisan Voter Guides. “Now, the information we have is that former Gov. Walker supports Judge Lazar. To evaluate the implications of that endorsement we’ll first need to research Gov. Walker’s record. Who wants to lead the study team on this aspect of the document?”

I was curious about what generous organization provided this vital civic service. Probably the League of Women Voters, I assumed. But no! The disclaimer in white against a light background — I’m sure this was just a printer’s oversight, not any attempt to obscure the source — said it came to me from The Justice Project Action.

So I looked them up because I wanted to get them a note thanking them for this crucial and timely information. Turns out, much to my surprise, that they’re from Washington, DC, of all places. And they provide this kind of service all over the country. In fact, this isn’t even the first time they’ve helped us sort things out here in Wisconsin. As reported by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the organization spent about three quarters of a million dollars on similar mailers and on other strategies to attack Republican Brad Schimel and support Democrat Susan Crawford in the Court race a year ago.

Of course, I wanted to dig deeper to learn who was behind The Justice Project Action. There I hit a road block. Turns out these folks are shy. Apparently, they just want to do their public service and they don’t want to be pestered with ‘thank yous’ pouring in from all over the country. The organization operates under the cover of a nonprofit designation that doesn’t require it to reveal its donors.

Okay, so now, let me depart from my sarcasm and explain — as if you needed the explanation — why this is so bad. In the first place, it treats voters like idiots. Anybody with an ounce of a brain can see right through this. If you want to support one candidate and oppose the other, just come out and say so. Maybe they can’t because it would violate the sham of being a 501(c)3 nonprofit that isn’t supposed to engage in candidate endorsements. So they need to pretend that they’re just providing information and not endorsing Taylor while attacking Lazar.

But don’t give them any sympathy for this. If they wanted to, they could organize under a different provision which would both allow them to openly and honestly endorse and oppose candidates. But by doing it this underhanded way they can keep their donors secret.

And that’s the thing that is even more egregious: the lack of transparency. Anybody can send money to The Justice Project Action and remain anonymous. So who might be contributing? Unions who want to see Act 10 overturned? Trial lawyers who traditionally back Democrats who in turn fight tort reform? Teachers unions who want to see the Court limit vouchers?

Again, I don’t have any trouble with any of those causes. But voters have a right to know who’s pumping money into these campaigns and who is providing information through these kinds of communications — and of course the same holds true for Lazar’s supporters who I’m sure are doing the very same thing. Only I won’t get her mailings because I don’t live in a Republican area.

This points up two things. First, our campaign laws are a disaster. Anybody who wants to manipulate things and do so in the shadows will find it easy to do just that. And second, this kind of politics-as-usual is something we might have to put up with in officially partisan races for the legislature and governor. But the Supreme Court should be above all this.

Still more evidence that we need to stop electing, and start appointing, justices.