2008 Primaries, Promotions, Views on News, public relations • July 23rd, 2008

The six-million-dollar election

by Chris Lato

Brace yourself for a new round of hand-wringing. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has issued an analysis that shows nearly $6 million was spent in the recent State Supreme Court election between Mike Gableman and Louis Butler.

The biggest spender: that shadowy cabal known as Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. The right wing has MoveOn.org to loathe – now the Wisconsin left has WMC to demonize.

We’ve been down this road before, but it’s amazing that Butler’s supporters still aren’t letting this go. Like it or not, the Supreme Court race was democracy in action. Was it nasty? Yup. Did some of the ads take harsh pokes at the candidates? You betcha.

This trend is unlikely to change. Spending in the Gableman-Butler race was up a bit from the 2007 Annette Ziegler-Linda Clifford contest. There is no reason to think there won’t be another pitched battle for the soul of the high court. And again, the voters will have to sift through a mountain of ads while acting as the final arbiters. They’re smart. They can see through the BS. Give ‘em some credit.

The ads in this year’s race were ripped for being some of the tackiest in state history (including one ad from the Wisconsin Education Association Council singled out by the Democracy Campaign as being ‘one of the most lurid ads in the campaign’) but the voters made their decision. There is no compelling need to comprehensively overhaul the election of Supreme Court justices to, say, appoint the justices.

We’ve all seen how that goes. After all, Butler was an appointee of Governor Doyle. When the voters were given a chance to have their say, they rejected Butler. Twice. (Remember the Butler-Diane Sykes race?)

Shirley Abrahamson is up next. She’s pledging to take ‘the high road to the high court.’ Best of luck. She deserves respect for serving on the high court for an astonishing 30-plus years. And ultimately, she will rise and fall on the basis of her record, her agenda, and the quality of her opposition. (By the way, Scott McCallum and Sue Ann Thompson are listed among her supporters. Interesting…)

So, to all those with their knickers still in a twist over the last two high court races: pick up the pieces and, as the group says, MoveOn.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 7:39 am and is filed under 2008 Primaries, Promotions, Views on News, public relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.