I know you are frustrated by the outcome of the state Supreme Court election. I am at wit’s end too. I want to spew expletives from the rooftops, but will try to speak my piece as gently and respectfully as I can.
Another election, another round of venting and fuming about stupid, unthinking people voting against their own interests. You ask for the umpteenth time how long will it take for them to wake up and see they are being sold down the river.
The thing is, Mike McCabe is not an insider, which makes him an outsider and according to the insiders in the WISDEMS, that makes him a larger threat to their hold of their small slice of pie than the WISGOP.
Witness this from former Wisconsoin Democratic Party head Mike Tate!
That is a rant for the ages, and aimed at Mr. McCabe but too cowardly to mention him by name, When there is someone who wants to get money out of politics, it seriously infringes on people who are bloodsuckers in politics and want a piece of that pie.
A quick background on Mike Tate, he was former head of the Wisconsin Democratic Party and when he left last summer, went to work for Milwaukee County Exec Chris Abele, where he was given $5,000,000 to smear his opponent.
The Ironic thing is while Mr. Tate is talking about winning elections, giving to candidates and driving turnout. Mike was turning the County Exec race very dirty and smearing his old friend Chris Larson(who supported Tate for party chair) as a Walker clone. In this race, there was no doubt that Chris Larson was the Progressive candidate next to anti-labor Chris Abele.
The research shows that the biggest benefit of dirty campaigning is to drive down turnout. How many people stayed home because of the fiasco that was the county executives race?
The absolute most ironic thing of the year is this: "unless you gave whatever you could to the Kloppenburg campaign and not Bernie or Hillary, I just don't think you get to complain. $5 to Kloppenburg would have gne alot further than to Bernie...."
Last Tuesday, Wisconsin held their primary which was the first time a partisan Presidential Primary was on the same ballot as a non partisan local and state wide election was on the same ballot.
The turnout was surprisingly high for a spring election and the ballot was confusing. For some reason there was a a spot at the top of the ballot where you could fill out Democrat or Republican. Why that would be a an option on a non partisan ballot is beyond me. That being said, lets move on to the individual races.
The Top of the ticket featured the first time there was a contested Presidential primary in ages. I Will not focus on the clown show on the right, instead lets focus on the Democratic Primary.
While the Republicans did receive more votes (around 97000) the leading vote getter in the Wisconsin Presidential Primary was Senator Sanders:
Bernie Sanders - 567,936
Ted Cruz - 531,129
Hillary Clinton - 432,767
Donald Trump - 386.370
John Kasich - 155,200
In the days leading up to the primary, Bernie Sanders was traveling the state holding rallies while Ms. Clinton was holding private events when she was not flying back to New York for a Lehman Brothers fundraiser.
Previous champions of labor like Cory Mason, Chris Taylor, Debra Kolste and Janis Ringhand inexplicably decided that the person who was in favor of every free trade deal in our history and championed the horrendous TPP would be the best choice for the people of WI.
Unfortunately Bernies strong showing showed us why the Democratic party continues to be insignificant in Wisconsin, the huge disconnect between the party and the voters!
Quick piece of advice to the WisDems - Progressive populism is not against the law! Until the state Democrats begin to make this a priority:
Over this:
We will continue to be a red state.
Things are not any better on the State party level, Martha Laning, State Party Chair, said that she would use her super delegate vote for the winner of the Wisconsin primary, and after Bernie won handily, quickly switched positions to sayings he would support whoever was winning at the end. Thus telling 568,000 Wisconsinites who braved the weather, lines and restrictive voting laws, thanks for playing but the game is over. Sit down and be quiet until we need you in the fall.
The way that the establishment circled their wagons for the Wall St. Senator did not go unseen by the people of Wisconsin. With Bernie Sanders outdrawing all candidates on a regular basis to great enthusiasm, it looked like the party establishment banded together to stop the Sanders uprising. If only they were so united for workers rights, public education and jobs.
The Supreme Court Race:
Wisconsin, despite already electing Mike Gableman to the Supreme Court has now elected someone even less qualified. In doing so, there is much blame and self reflection to go around and none of it belongs to Bernie Sanders.
First, Judge Kloppenburg made it clear that she did not really want the help of the Democratic party since this is a "non partisan" race and the Democratic party gladly obliged. Her opponent, was handpicked by the GOP, coordinated her campaign with the GOP and even let it be known that there was no need to even listen to oral arguments just rule how they tell her to rule.
The two parties are playing different games by different rules and as long as that continues to happen the GOP will continue successfully stacking the courts.
Secondly, many people loved that at the insider dinner in Milwaukee before the election when Hillary laid into Rebecca Bradley. While it was very much justified it hurt the cause.
No sane person would think that Ms. Kloppenburg was as hyper partisan as Ms. Bradley but when the establishment Democrat, with record negatives, lays into one candidate that confirms to people throughout the state that one candidate is an R and one is a D.
Now Ms. Kloppenburg is associated with all as the Democratic candidate and is twisting in the wind with no help from the Democratic party.
Again different games, different rules, same results.
Which brings us to the Milwaukee County Executive race.
While I live in Dane county and am not effected on a daily basis of Mr. Abele's poor policies. However as an observer from afar I found something interesting that no one seemed to talk about.
By all accounts, Mr. Abele spent approximately $5 million dollars smearing former Democratic Senate minority leader Chris Larson. What is important to note is that Mr. Larson was the former Democratic leader of the Senate when Mike Tate was the chair of the Democratic party. In all of Mike Tate's elections, Chris Larson was one of his biggest supporters.
Chris Abele hired Mike Tate to help him run his campaign. Mike Tate then promptly went to work smearing his old friend and supporter. Everyone knows that when Mike Tate took over the party, the Dems held both houses and the Governor's mansion and during his tenure they lost all three and have become irrelevant. We see with Tate taking a few pieces to smear a friend, the lack of values and ethics and character, and a good part of the reason why the party is no longer relevant.
One last observation. In the five million dollars that Tate/Abele spent to keep his $130,000/yr job, how many times did they mention the importance of electing JoAnne Kloppenburg? The same amount of times that anyone in the establishment has spoken up about Chris Abele working against the party.
My first recommendation for the party is to have Peter Barca resign his leadership position immediately and place Rep. Jonathon Brostoff Assembly minority leader.
Here at CogDis, both Capper and I have written plenty about how unqualified Ms. Bradley is to serve on the Supreme Court of WI, so its time to share what others are also saying about her.
4. Also, in 1992 you said this about those who voted for Bill Clinton in the 1992 election:
“We’ve just had an election which proves that the majority of voters are either totally stupid or entirely evil.”
Did you have the same reaction when a majority of Wisconsin’s voters chose Bill Clinton again in 1996, Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012?
Except that she wasn't that young and not drunk at all. She meant what she said and she said it. I've read a bunch of my old stuff in the past week and I don't have to apologize for any of it. I'd write all of it again -- perhaps with a lot less use of the phrase "of course" -- I used that a lot. What I wrote was part of what I was and still part of what I am. I think college writers are all proud of what they wrote and they still have the same world view -- they just go after their goals in different ways. I know I do. Bradley certainly has. She has never swerved off the nut-right political path, serving as president of the radical-right bunch of lawyers called the Federalist Society and all manner of other right-wing groups and causes. As late as 2006, Bradley was writing about how pharmacists shouldn't be "forced" to be "a party to murder" by doing their job and filling birth control prescriptions. It is written in the same kind of deliriously clueless writing from her Marquette days, without the name-calling. The student apple didn't fall far from the adult tree.
Bradley is simply not a good fit, and she has demonstrated this in ways many and varied. It's not just about the (heinous) opinions spouted in college newspaper columns. Add in the money taken from right-wing political organizations, and her seeming disinterest in the judicial process (leaving oral arguments early to speak at a conservative fundraiser, casting the deciding vote in a crucial case essentially negating the Fourth Amendment even though she wasn't present for arguments), and it becomes crystal clear that this is a person unfit for the job.
This should serve as a stark lesson in the pitfalls of promoting people beyond their qualifications simply because they've been loyal to you or your cause. That's called cronyism and reliance upon it only leads to corruption. Not only that, but it tends to also lead to the destruction of systems people rely on to seek real justice and to live decently.
If Bradley were half the jurist she claims to be, she would own up to having been promoted beyond her capacity and drop out of the race. Something tells me that won't happen, especially given the combination of silence and deferral she's done since these most recent revelations.
It's up to Wisconsin voters to make it clear that we will not accept cronies and ideological puritans on the highest court in the state and that we value checks and balances. That means electing judges who demonstrate clear judicial impartiality, hard work and real curiosity and critical thinking.
"I wrote opinion pieces 24 years ago on a variety of issues, and they are opinions that some people may agree with, some people might disagree with," said Bradley in an interview with TheCapital Times.“To those offended by comments I made as a young college student, I apologize, and assure you that those comments are not reflective of my worldview,” said Bradley in a press statement.
I cannot judge what is in Rebecca Bradley’s heart, but these read to me like the apologies of someone who feels bad their past caught up with them, not the apologies of someone truly regretful. ‘To those offended’ makes it sound like she feels bad for offending potential voters, not for having written the column in the first place.
Unless I'm mistaken, it looks like every right wing flack and corporate lobbyist is getting media time defending Rebecca Bradley's unforgivable commentary that can't be reversed; can you still be a conservative and take back saying a majority of Clinton voters are either totally stupid or entirely evil? They're saying that now for gods sake. Or how about "degenerate queers," words no one else uses. And that's her public face.
H/T Democurmudgeon for this clip of Ms. Bradley unhinged:
MADISON, Wis. — Based on her comments in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Rebecca Bradley, appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by Gov. Scott Walker in September, violated the state’s open record laws by providing falsified calendars to One Wisconsin Now in response to a request for her work calendar. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross said the organization is consulting with legal counsel about potential action against Walker’s thrice-appointed judge.
“After repeated delays, Rebecca Bradley wrote us that she had fulfilled our simple open records request for her taxpayer-financed calendar,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “Now it turns out the years of blank pages she gave and charged us at an exorbitant rate to retrieve were a complete fraud and fabrication.”
It’s worth considering the context of the times when The Marquette Tribune ran Bradley’s op-ed and letters to the editor. AIDS was the big scary disease that at any moment was going to spread to the heterosexual community at epidemic levels, or so we were told. There was a real debate at how much and what kind of “AIDS education” was appropriate, and certainly this was true on Marquette, which was once a Catholic university.
Homosexuality did not have the acceptance it has now. This was before former President Bill Clinton ordered “don’t ask, don’t tell,” for the military. It was certainly before Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which was a federal effort to try to stop the courts from imposing gay marriage on the states. It was before President Barack Obama said he was opposed to gay marriage, and before his “growth” on the issue in 2012 and his sudden support for gay marriage.
It was at that time that a college kid tried to attract a little attention by throwing around language that today would have caused a near riot on campus. It was all but forgotten until it was dug up by an organization led by a political hatchet man who recently referred to a female reporter former governor* as a “racist anus.”
In a statement, Bradley apologized "to those offended by comments I made as a young college student," and said she assures "you that those comments are not reflective of my worldview. These comments have nothing to do with who I am as a person or a jurist, and they have nothing to do with the issues facing the voters of this state.
They have nothing to do with the issues facing the voters of this state? Maybe the white upper class GOP voters but not most of WI. I would hate to be an LBBQT person hoping for a fair ruling from Ms. Bradley.
But wait there's more .......
She said she wrote the columns "as a very young student, upset about the outcome of that presidential election and I am frankly embarrassed at the content and tone of what I wrote those many years ago."
She admits that she is so pure red, dyed in the wool Republican that when the Clinton/Gore ticket beat the George HW Bush/Quayle ticket she could not control her anger and lashed out at the people she hated/blamed. The gays and the ignorant people of WI, who were not as smart as she is when she heads to the ballot box.
.@gneumann_wkow@JudgeBradleyWI Eagerly await breathless reports on student writings of Russ Feingold, Joanne Kloppenburg, Tammy Baldwin.
I know Charley is a little slow but let me help him out. 1. The so called "liberal" media had NOTHING to do with releasing these reports it was done with some good research by One Wisconsin Now. 2. If Only Charles had say a TV show, a radio show on the biggest tower in WI and a right wing propaganda website, then maybe he could actually dig up the student writings of stated Democrats. 3. What Sykes is doing here is working the refs....he is trying to guilt them into finding same stories on the Dems(so he does not have to do the work) or else making them hesitate in the future about reporting on such stories. 4. Pretty sure Chuck does not see any problem whatsoever in her writings.
It is essential in 2016 that we elect people who are not fresh out of central casting in 1950.
Here at CogDis, we have been bringing you the story of how Republican Supreme Court Nominee Rebecca Bradley is an empty suit and is being pushed to the Supreme Court to do Walker's bidding, and not because of her qualifications.
As we have seen over time, the Supreme Court holds more power than anyone and its imperative that it stop being a dysfunctioning den full of Michael Grebe's employees ordered to give Scott Walker cover.
The thing about Ms. Bradley is it is so obvious that she is strictly a Walker crony that we could write a story everyday about what she did that day to flash her incompetence.
For instance we know that she feels its ok to lie in her campaign advertisements. As the Wisconsin Republicans so often do, Ms. Bradley realized if she can get away with lying in her campaign ads, why not turn it up a notch. Now her campaign has been push polling people in this race.
For those that do not know what a push poll is, Wikipedia says a “push poll is a form of telemarketing-based propaganda and rumor mongering” and is an attempt “to influence or alter the view of voters under the guise of conducting a poll.” For example, the George W Bush campaign used a push poll when they were competing gainst John McCain. They called people and said "would you vote for John McCain if you knew he was the father of bastard children(his children were adopted)?" See they ask a hypothetical as if it is true to put doubt in voters minds. Its a despicable practice and one perfected by the Republican slime machine. Secondly, there is Ms. Bradley's performance itself. In the first case she heard, she had no problem ruling against the defendant, despite the fact that she was not on the court to hear the original arguments.
Justice Rebecca Bradley's first decision on a case since joining the Wisconsin Supreme Court in October has created a little buzz -- and she didn't even write an opinion. Bradley's tie-breaking vote in a 4-3 ruling that broadly interpreted a doctrine that lets police use evidence seized without a warrant has come under fire from the defendant who would otherwise have won the case. Charles Matalonis contends Bradley's vote violated his rights to due process and equal protection, and left the appearance that Bradley was biased toward law enforcement groups who are backing her current campaign for election to the job. Earlier, the state Court of Appeals had agreed to suppress evidence - a marijuana plant - that Kenosha police found after entering Matalonis' locked bedroom without a search warrant. A 3-3 tie on the high court would have affirmed that ruling. Bradley wasn't on the court when it heard oral argument in the case, and she had abstained from several other decisions the court issued on cases heard before her appointment Oct. 9, to replace Justice Patrick Crooks, who died Sept. 21. But she formed a majority to reverse the prior ruling on Matalonis, on the grounds that police were not investigating a crime when they discovered the plant, but were exercising a "community caretaker" function, making sure no injured person was inside the room. They had followed a blood trail to Matalonis' house after his brother, who had clearly been beaten, arrived at a neighbor's house.
MADISON, Wis. -Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley left oral arguments in a pending case before they had concluded so she could give a speech to the state chamber of commerce, a group that's spent heavily in past court elections in favor of conservative candidates.
Here is Scott Walker pulling her strings at a press conference.
For the Good of Wisconsin and the Future for our children, lets elect someone who takes the law seriously and is not beholden to extreme ideology - Vote Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg!
Tuesday was the spring primary elections in Wisconsin. While most of the races were local ones, there were three bigger races that had some eye-opening results. These races - one for the state supreme court, one for mayor of Milwaukee and one for Milwaukee County Executive - give hope that the Wisconsin Winter is not over and that the people are ready to start taking our state back.
Wisconsin Supreme Court
The winners of this primary was the "incumbent" Rebecca Bradley and JoAnne Kloppenburg.
Bradley is the dark money candidate. She has been appointed by Scott Walker to three different judicial seats in three years, including to the Wisconsin State Supreme Court a few months ago. The right wing loves her qualifications - being a Federalist and working to advance their causes such as voter suppression.
Bradley has already received help from the dark money groups to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are also taking full advantage of the now non-existent election laws by openly collaborating with Bradley's campaign, going as far as using the same footage in their commercials.
Her opponent, JoAnne Kloppenburg, has had some experience dealing with the dirty politics practiced by the right wing. Kloppenburg was the person that damn nearly unseated David "Chokehold" Prosser, until the Waukesha County clerk just happened to "find" 7,000 ballots two days after the election.
Despite all of the dark money pouring into this race, Bradley barely eked out a 2% lead over Kloppenburg. It is expected that the voters who went with the third candidate in this race, Joe Donald, will go to Kloppenburg, which would give her the advantage.
Mayor of Milwaukee
The dynamics in this race is a little different. Tom Barrett is the Democratic incumbent. While Barrett is much too moderate and corporate for my taste, he was clearly the most liberal candidate in this race.
The opponent that made it through the primary is Bathroom Bob Donovan, a city alderman. Donovan's campaign is centered on wanting more cops, hating black people and being against the streetcar that Barrett wants to build using federal funding.
Barrett easily won the primary, 45-34%. Interestingly, Donovan is hedging his bets by also running for reelection as alderman and is facing a strong possibility of losing that race too.
Milwaukee County Executive
The incumbent Milwaukee County Executive is millionaire Chris Abele, son of billionaire John Abele. Abele's claims to fame are the decimation of representative government in the county, making the poorest of the poor pay for the $80 million he promised to help build a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks and working with state Republicans to take over and privatize the Milwaukee Public School System. Abele wasn't concerned about how unpopular these moves were, figuring he could always use his daddy's checkbook to buy his reelection.
To give you an idea of how bad Abele is, people refer to him as Walker Lite.
His opponent is State Senator Chris Larson. Larson led the other Democratic state senators in 2011 to leave the state for weeks to give the people a chance to organize and fight back against Scott Walker's attack on public employee unions.
Abele spent nearly $2 million of his own money on a barrage of mailers and an endless flood of radio and TV commercials. He outspent Larson by more than a 20 to 1 margin. Abele's goal was to crush the opposition and come through the primary with a huge victory.
Despite all that money, Abele found out the hard way that some things just can't be bought, and actually lost the primary to Larson.
You read that correctly. Abele spent $42.00 per vote to Larson's $2.00 per vote, and despite being the incumbent, lost the primary to his opponent.
What should make Bradley, Donovan and Abele even more nervous than their dismal performances tonight is the fact that the general election is April 5, the same day as the state's presidential primary. As the gentle reader already knows, nothing brings Democrats out to vote like a presidential election.
This campaign is about the future of our Supreme Court, what kind of court it ought to be and what kind of justices we ought to elect to the court. The court ought to be a place where justice is done without fear or favor. We must elect justices who have the courage and skill to stand up against the partisan politics and special interests that have no place on the court.
On Feb. 16, we have a tremendous opportunity to choose a new justice for our Supreme Court. To take advantage of that opportunity we need the right candidate.
We need a candidate who is a strong, clear alternative to Gov. Walker’s choice, Rebecca Bradley.
Gov. Walker appointed Rebecca Bradley three times to three judgeships in three years. One of her conservative supporters wrote to Walker: “Rebecca … will receive the strong support of conservatives. She has paid her dues. That will not be forgotten.”
The other candidate, Joe Donald, supported Rebecca Bradley twice. He endorsed Bradley after Gov. Walker appointed her to Circuit Court. Then, last year, he served as a reference for Bradley’s application to Gov. Walker for her second judicial appointment. When asked by a reporter why he supported Rebecca Bradley, Donald said, “The only thing I can tell you is that I got bamboozled.”
Voters expect — and deserve — justices who cannot be “bamboozled” by the partisan agendas that threaten the ability of our court to function as an independent check and balance on the other branches of government. I alone was first elected, not appointed, to the bench.
We also need a candidate who has the best qualifications. I am the presiding judge on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District 4. My colleagues chose me as presiding judge because they respect my ability to encourage the best from everyone, efficiently conduct the court’s business, and respectfully handle issues that arise.
I have a proven track record as an independent, fair and thoughtful appellate judge. I have issued hundreds of written decisions. Rebecca Bradley has issued several. Joe Donald has never written an appellate decision.
Before being elected to the Court of Appeals, I was an assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice for 23 years, handling hundreds of cases in courts around the state at all levels.
Finally, in order to elect a new justice, we need a candidate who knows what it takes to run a statewide campaign. In 2011, I earned 750,000 votes in one of the highest turnout elections ever in a Supreme Court race. I had much support: People of all political stripes, working men and women, judges, law enforcement professionals, attorneys, community leaders all came together during that campaign.
I am building on that support. I am the only candidate who has visited all 72 counties during this campaign. Wisconsin residents from every county are publicly endorsing our campaign, including former Congressman Dave Obey from Wausau, civil rights pioneer Vel Phillips from Milwaukee, and former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.
There is no other candidate in this race who matches the breadth and depth of my judicial and legal experience. There is no other candidate who matches my ability to reach out, statewide, and build the strong, grassroots network it takes to win this race.
I am the only candidate in this race who has both the background and the backbone to win this campaign and to stand up, as a justice on our Supreme Court, to the partisan politics and unregulated special interests that have no place on the court.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Joe Donald, one of two candidates vying to unseat Justice Rebecca Bradley on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, endorsed Bradley's 2013 campaign to remain on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court and served as a reference for her application to the 1st District Court of Appeals in 2015.
So why would an "impartial" Judge give glowing recommendation to a bitterly partisan Judge who has not earned her own stripes and is just there to do Scott Walker's bidding?
"Joe usually, unless he has a serious problem with the person, usually supports the incumbents. Left, right, doesn’t matter," Suchorski said. "That was primarily it: as a fellow incumbent judge, he supported her."
Let's look at that again and really let it sink in:
"Joe usually, unless he has a serious problem with the person, usually supports the incumbents. Left, right, doesn’t matter," Suchorski said. "That was primarily it: as a fellow incumbent judge, he supported her."
The Donald campaign is telling us that Judge Donald's word means absolutely nothing. That Judge Donald has decided if you have the job of Judge you might as well have it forever and it does not matter how qualified you are (or are not), Judge Donald will write you a recommendation.
Many positions rely on recommendations in hiring qualified people. If you recommend people who you feel are not qualified you are doing a great disservice to the people who are being recommended, the people looking to hire and your own reputation?
According to Donald's campaign manager, Mr. Donald does not care about any of the above issues and will just give anyone a standard recommendation that asks.
How does that laziness, and lack of effort translate into how he will research a tough issue and rule on it according to the law?
That is up to you to decide, but in my mind it is very troubling.
Rebecca Bradley, the interim Supreme Court Justice, who has made a living out of being appointed to better jobs frequently by Scott Walker, has apparently taken up Walker's work ethic.
One Wisconsin Now, recently did an open records request for her calendars when she was the sitting(and sitting is an apt description here) judge in her previous positions. After much delay she finally gave up her schedule to OWN and for 2 1/2 years her calendar was empty.
Responding to an open records request from a liberal group, the newly appointed conservative justice provided monthly calendars that suggested she had no official business— other than the cases she was hearing —for 29 straight months.
Other public service: Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge, 2015 (appointed); Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge 2012-15 (appointed); Wisconsin State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Other public service: Board member, Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation (2014-present); member, Wisconsin Court System Planning and Policy Advisory Committee (2014-present); speaker to bench and bar groups around the state and at conferences around the country (1993-present); volunteer faculty, University of Wisconsin Law School intensive skills course (1992-present); volunteer judge (quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals) for University of Wisconsin Law School and Marquette University Law School moot courts, and for Wisconsin High School Mock Trial Tournament (2011-present); mentor, Dane County Bar Association and University of Wisconsin Law School (2011-present); coordinator and adjunct instructor, University of Wisconsin Law School Department of Justice extern program (1995-2012); volunteer mediator, Dane County Bar Association (2010-2012); volunteer attorney, Dane County foreclosure clinic (2010-2012); board member, Wisconsin Legal Action (1991-1993)
Charles Sykes
Posts
