AG hopefuls bring night-and-day perspectives (UPDATE)

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By TODD RICHMOND
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — They both love motorcycles, earned law degrees in Madison and have spent years fighting crime in the courtroom, but those are about the only things Wisconsin’s two attorney general candidates have in common.

Republican Brad Schimel and Democrat Susan Happ have vastly different philosophies, promising a far more intense campaign leading up to the Nov. 4 election than the sleepy Democratic primary contest that wrapped up this week.

“This becomes a race between a mainstream Republican and a mainstream Democrat,” said University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee political scientist Mordecai Lee, a former Democratic state representative. “We’re not getting somebody to the right of the tea party and someone to the left of the liberals. The voters … will have to go to the second level and focus on the issues.”

Both Schimel and Happ agree that first-time drunken driving shouldn’t be a criminal offense — Wisconsin is the only state where a first-time offense is treated as a civil violation — but from there they’re sticking to their party positions on most of the big-ticket questions.

Happ says she wouldn’t defend a host of Republican-authored provisions that Van Hollen is currently fighting to preserve in federal court, including Wisconsin’s gay marriage ban and laws requiring abortion providers obtain hospital admitting privileges and voters show photo identification.

She supports background checks for private gun sales — currently checks are required only when purchasing a firearm from a federally licensed dealer — and has said legalizing medicinal marijuana might make sense if it’s tightly regulated.

“I want to be a champion and defender of the people,” Happ said. “I want to defend their rights as well as their safety. I think the differences (with Schimel) are going to be real clear in that regard.”

Schimel has said he would defend voter ID law, the gay marriage ban and the admitting privileges requirement. He wouldn’t have defended the state’s domestic partner registry, which grants legal rights to same-sex couples short of marriage. The conservative group Wisconsin Family Action filed a lawsuit in 2010 challenging the registry’s validity in the face of the gay marriage ban; the state Supreme Court found it constitutional last month.

On the gun front, Schimel believes current background check requirements are enough, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last month that the government should aggressively enforce gun laws already on the books.

“Brad Schimel believes the job of the attorney general is to defend the state in matters before the court regardless of someone’s personal views,” Johnny Koremenos, Schimel’s campaign manager, said in an email to The Associated Press.

Happ was born and raised in Jefferson County, a swath of Republican-leaning farm communities between Madison and Milwaukee. She rides a Harley-Davidson, holds degrees in law, journalism and Russian from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She returned to her home county and has spent the last six years as district attorney there.

She soundly defeated state Rep. Jon Richards of Milwaukee and Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne in Tuesday’s primary, but only about 6 percent of the state’s voting-age population cast a ballot in the race.

Schimel holds a UW-Madison law degree as well and has served as district attorney in Waukesha County, a Milwaukee suburb and Republican stronghold, since 2006. He rides a Harley, too, and served seven years as road captain for the Kettle Moraine Harley owners’ group. He also plays bass guitar for the “4 On the Floor” classic rock band.

He was the first candidate to announce he would run for attorney general after incumbent Republican J.B. Van Hollen decided not to seek re-election last year. Schimel didn’t face a GOP primary opponent, allowing him to focus on raising cash. As of the end of July he had almost $420,000 in the bank, more than three times as much as Happ.

Both sides set a combative tone Wednesday, a day after the primary. Schimel attacked Happ’s experience, claiming she has prosecuted only seven jury trials compared to the 150 he’s worked.

State Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate responded by blasting Schimel for dropping felony misconduct-in-office charges against former state Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen in a 2010 plea deal. Jensen, a Waukesha Republican, was accused of using state workers to campaign. Follow @trichmond1