Lawmakers push for public financing fund for Wis. high court elections (UPDATE)

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A group of Democratic legislators is trying to revive public financing for state Supreme Court elections.

Assembly Bill 543, introduced Monday by Rep. Gary Hebl, D-Sun Prairie, essentially seeks to reinstate the Democracy Trust Fund, which was included in the state’s 2009 budget and allowed Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates to receive $100,000 in public money for a primary election and $300,000 for a general election.

The public money was used in 2011 during the race between incumbent Justice David Prosser, then-assistant attorney general and current Court of Appeals Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg, and two other candidates.

But the fund – which supporters say is a way to reduce politics on the bench – then was promptly done away with in the state’s 2011-13 budget.

In all, $5.1 million was spent on the 2011 state Supreme Court race – one of the costliest in state history – with the majority of that coming from outside interest groups not bound by public-financing laws. Prosser has said he would not accept public money if he had to do his campaign over again.

Hebl, who has been in the Assembly since 2004, acknowledged that reviving public financing is a long shot, if only because it’s a Democratic-supported bill in a Republican-controlled Legislature.

Likening the bill’s passage to “living in a dream world,” Hebl said it’s still important to push for public financing in order to combat the expensive and vitriolic nature of recent state Supreme Court elections.

While he said the bill “is not a silver bullet that’s going to solve the problems … it’s one step in the right direction.”

“I can keep banging a drum for ethical, for fair, for open elections,” he said. “And that’s what we really have to do in this state.”

He added that overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United would have the largest effect, however, on combating the influx of money in elections.

AB 543 was referred to the Assembly’s Committee on Campaigns and Elections. Staff members for the committee’s chairperson, Rep. Kathleen Bernier, R-Chippewa Falls, did not return a message left Tuesday.

Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said he could see a “small benefit to giving candidates a public financing option,” because they would be “freed from soliciting private donations.”

He said his organization supports the ideas in Assembly Bill 353, which was introduced in September and would allow candidates to collect grants to match small campaign contributions. That bill has not yet been heard by a committee, but it would allow justice candidates to “stay in the game and remain relevant and respond to attacks,” yet it would not “jeopardize the ability for them to function as impartial judges.”

“Right now, we don’t have a Legislature that seems open to even having hearings,” McCabe said. “There is nothing wrong with these proposals being offered right now, [but] the political will is missing to take action and deal with these problems.”

In an interview Tuesday, Prosser continued to express reservations and counterarguments to a publicly-financed election. Treating money from outside groups as inevitable, the justice said a campaign restricted to public money could be problematic in allowing candidates to respond to attack ads paid for by outside groups.

Citing a 2011 ad that focused on his decision not to prosecute a priest in the late 1970s when he was serving as the district attorney in Outagamie County, Prosser said it could have crippled his campaign had it been aired within a few days of the election.

“No amount of public money that would have been made available would have helped our case,” Prosser said, adding that “when the answer depends entirely on third parties, they are in a position either to do a wonderful job or to go way over the edge and embarrass the candidate.”

He also said he questions about why a government would want to finance opponents to a sitting justice.

“Hypothetically, if a judge is doing a terrific job, is impartial, is not totally predictable in order how he or she is going to rule, is a hard worker, is intelligent; should the system be trying into luring candidates into running against a judge?” Prosser said.

Kloppenburg did not immediately return a phone call placed Tuesday.

A Senate version of the bill has not yet been introduced, though Sen. Mark Miller, D-Menona, is listed as its sponsor. He did not immediately return a phone call placed Tuesday afternoon.

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