Yahoo Autos Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz assails state's election maps as 'rigged'
MADISON – Speaking at a campaign forum Monday, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz called state election maps "rigged" and designed to take away votes from people in larger communities including Dane and Milwaukee counties.
"They do not reflect people in this state. I don't think you could sell any reasonable person that the maps are fair," said Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee County judge and one of four running for a seat on the state Supreme Court. "I can't tell you what I would do on a particular case, but I can tell you my values, and the maps are wrong."
In April 2022, the court ruled 4-3 in favor of a legislative redistricting plan drawn by Republican lawmakers giving the party's candidates in the Legislature a bigger advantage over the next decade.
New maps are drawn every 10 years.
Former Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly, seeking a return to the bench, said the court's responsibility was limited to considering legal challenges, not political challenges.
"When someone tells you what their values are to a legal challenge, they are telling you how they will decide a case," Kelly said. "Unless we are dead set on tearing down the distinctions of the branches of government, we need to make sure the court exists for deciding legal distinctions."
Protasiewicz and Kelly joined the other two candidates, Waukesha County Court Judge Jennifer Dorow and Dane County Judge Everett Mitchell, during a forum sponsored by WisPolitics.com.
Mitchell agreed with Protasiewicz's assessment of the state's election maps, saying they only benefit the status quo. He said he hopes future maps are less partisan and represent Wisconsin's diversity.
On most questions, Dorow read from a prepared script and did not answer fully, saying the issues, including election maps and gun control might be before the court.
The four candidates are in a hotly contested race for conservative Justice Patience Roggensack's seat, which could swing the makeup of the court from its current 4-3 conservative majority.
On Monday, Roggensack endorsed Dorow, one of two conservative candidates running. Kelly, the other conservative, served with Roggensack. Kelly was appointed to the court in 2016 and lost his bid for a 10-year term in 2020 to Jill Karofsky, a member of the court's liberal minority.
Protasiewicz and Mitchell are both liberals running with the support of Democrats.
Each candidate highlighted the individual experiences that they say will make them the best candidate for the 10-year term on the Supreme Court.
The candidates also pledged to not let outside funding influence how they would rule from the bench if elected and to recuse themselves if there is a conflict of interest.
The top two vote-getters during the primary on Feb. 21 will go onto the April 4 general election.
While abortion is likely to be one of the key issues in the Supreme Court race, it was not a focus of Monday's forum. Republican legislative leaders have said they don't want the race to become a one-issue contest.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos hopes the Republican-controlled Legislature can introduce amendments to the state's abortion ban or write a new law that will be signed by Gov. Tony Evers so the state Supreme Court doesn't have to weigh in. But Evers has repeatedly said he wouldn't sign a bill unless it codifies abortion rules in place under the five decades of Roe v. Wade.
State leaders have grappled with abortion policy since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down its 1973 ruling legalizing abortion nationwide, leaving it up to state officials to decide their rules. The decision put back into effect the state's 1849 law banning doctors from providing abortions unless women would die without the procedure.
Mitchell and Protasiewicz cited the Dobbs decision as the court's worst ruling in the last 50 years.
Candidates' fundraising varies widely
Early campaign finance reports show Protasiewicz, who declared her candidacy last May, raised $756,217 in the second half of 2022, pushing her fundraising last year to $924,449, according to figures released by her campaign Monday.
Mitchell, who declared his candidacy last June, raised $24,471 in the first six months of 2022 and had $27,767 in his campaign account on June 30. The latest campaign finance report for Kelly, who entered the race last September, showed he raised nothing in the first six months of 2022 and had $16,581 in his campaign account on June 30, left over from his unsuccessful 2020 court race, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
Dorow, who entered the race in November, has not raised any campaign cash since 2012 when she ran for her first six-year term for circuit judge, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
Campaign finance reports for the last half of 2022 are due Jan. 17.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Protasiewicz assails election maps
