Abortion, crime color Kaul bid for 2nd AG term against Toney

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By TODD RICHMOND
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul hoped to fend off Republican Eric Toney on Tuesday for a second term as Wisconsin’s top law enforcement official.

It’s a critical race in battleground Wisconsin, one of the many states nationwide where both parties have turned to attorneys general over the last decade to challenge the other side’s policies in state and federal court.

Since Kaul won his first term in 2018, he has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the state’s 173-year-old abortion ban, defended 2020 election results that showed Democrat Joe Biden won the state and joined a number of multistate lawsuits challenging Trump administration policies.

Those have included a rollback of the Endangered Species Act and changes to the Affordable Care Act that would have removed protections for women, LGBTQ individuals and non-English speakers.

Kaul has questioned whether Toney, the Fond du Lac County district attorney, would use the attorney general’s office to aid a Donald Trump victory if he seeks the presidency in 2024. Toney has countered by portraying Kaul as soft on crime.

He attacked Kaul for delays in crime lab test results, pushing to end cash bail and understaffing at the state Department of Justice. He has called for getting tough on voter fraud and cracking down on crime in Milwaukee by allowing the attorney general to directly prosecute defendants there rather than leaving cases up to local prosecutors.

He also pledged to enforce the state’s 1849 law banning abortions. That included a call to allow district attorneys to prosecute abortions in adjoining counties before backing off that stance last month.

Kaul built his campaign largely around the abortion issue, touting his lawsuit to overturn the ban and promising that he would never use Justice Department resources to prosecute anyone involved in an abortion. He has said voter fraud is not a significant problem in the state.

Toney told The Associated Press in September that there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election and Biden won the state fairly. He declined to say whether he would support Trump should he run in 2024.