A significant judicial election in Wisconsin on April 5

When the truth is known, no amount of unlimited campaign financing can or should make a difference. Hopefully we will see that in an election for a seat on the Supreme Court of Wisconsin that is up for grabs on April 5. Judge David Prosser the incumbent is defending his seat because his ten year term is expiring.

As Governor/Dictator Scott Walker's chief baggage handler on the court he was already in trouble, with Walker's approval ratings plummeting and with a riled up protest movement.

He' in even more trouble now with this ad airing against him.   30 years, when Prosser was the District Attorney of Outagamie County a mother went to him to file a complaint about a priest that had been abusing her two children.  Instead of investigating, Prosser went to meet with the Bishop.  The incident was covered up and the priest was transferred to another community where the abuse continued.  Here's the ad currently running in Wisconsin. 



That's not Prosser's only problem. He recently called another female judge a 'total bitch', threatening to destroy her. While that may not lose him any votes among the teabag hard core GOP contingent it doesn't help him amongst independents.

His campaign had already been scurrying around like cockroaches trying to distance him from his statement in December during the primary when he said, ""Our campaign efforts will include building an organization that will return Justice Prosser to the bench, protecting the conservative judicial majority and acting as a common sense compliment [sic] to both the new [Republican] administration and legislature."

That was before Walker released his budget and his assault on public unions that has everyone in Wisconsin so riled up. Now hi campaign is trying to emphasize Prosser's judicial impartiality and non-partisanship, despite having previously characterized union workers as thuggish tapeworms infecting the intestinal tract of society.

There is also the vote for changing the ethical standards for judge in Wisconsin. He voted with the conservative majority to remove the requirement that judges recuse themselves from a case involving a campaign contributor. That rule was conveniently written by poewrfu corporate lobbyists who needs as many friends on the judiciary as they can get.

Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizen's United decision allowing unlimited and anonymous campaign donations those same lobbying groups who are now soliciting unlimited campaign donations from Wisconsin business leaders.

The letter says;

Dear Wisconsin Business Leader,

The government worker unions are openly attempting to overturn the November elections, buying an activist majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and grinding our democracy to a halt because Governor Scott Walker has refused to raise taxes to balance the budget. [...]

Click here to make a generous corporate contribution to counter their efforts. Donations are unlimited and undisclosed. [...]

WMC IMC will mount a statewide TV ad campaign to educate the public about Justice Prosser’s common sense approach. And, we will educate the public about Kloppenburg’s radical agenda, and how the union bosses want her to stand in the way of reform.

Please, give today. Our business climate is at stake.

Prosser's opponent in the election, Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenberg has been under attack from the Prosser forces for judicial experience. If Prosser is the paradigm for 'judicial experience' any sane person should prefer inexperience.

America has been undergoing a class war for the past 30 years or so. The rich have been winning as evidence by the Republicans penchant for screaming "class warfare" whenever the subject of the alarming widening gap of income inequality comes up. Democrats and the left immediately shrink away when tagged with the 'class warfare' tag. When Gov. Scott Walker revealed his budget after taking office all hell broke loose in Wisconsin. Democratic legislators fled the state to avoid allowing Walker a quorum to pass the budget and outraged public union workers took over the state Capital for a couple of weeks the lines were drawn. None of Walker's intentions were made public in his campaign which only helped fuel the anger.

The issue of removing collective bargaining right fir public union workers was only the tip of the iceberg. In a previous post I listed 10 other ways Walker is screwing the people of Wisconsin. Chief among them is giving himself the power to sell off state owned public utilities to the private sector without any bidding, public oversight or even c=allowing the public interest to be considered. His refusal to accept $810 in Federal funding for high speed rail caused a Spanish company to pack up and close it's Milwaukee plat costing 250 jobs. An assault on wind powered project has caused a projected wind power farm in Green Bay to close down and has scared off billions in future investments.

Class warfare has broken out into the open in America and Wisconsin is ground zero. The first salvos in this war on the electoral front will be the judicial election on April 5. The numbers of voters negatively affected by this war far outnumber the voters who are positively affected by the Prosser/Walker camp. Unlimited money used to perpetuate lies as we saw in the 2010 elections can fool a lot of people most of the time but when those voters are made aware of the lies, all the money spent defending the interests of the few can be negated. After all, the Koch brothers have are allowed as many votes as those of one couple besieged by the war against the middle and lower income classes. A defeat for David Prosser can and musts be the first victory for the underclass. With the spotlight on Walker's duplicity April 5 can be a turning point.