Monthly Archives: January, 2023

(The Center Square) – There’s now a formal complaint over how one of the liberal candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court is campaigning. A western Wisconsin man, Randall Cook, filed the complaint Monday.

He said Judge Janet Protasiewicz has violated the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct by talking openly about how she’d rule on cases that will likely come before the Supreme Court. Specifically, the complaint says Protasiewicz has called Wisconsin’s political maps ‘"rigged," and has said she supports abortion and same sex marriage laws.

“Put simply Judge Protasiewicz is promising her vote on certain cases as a way to win over voters,” Cook said in his complaint. “This is completely unethical and cannot be condoned. As a result of her statements, there is no way Judge Protasiewicz can impartially participate in any future case involving Wisconsin’s current legislative maps or any legal challenge involving abortion law.”

Candidates for the court are not supposed to tip their hand about how they may rule.

Cook added that not only are Protasiewicz’s comments wrong, they hurt the reputation of the court itself.

“It is inappropriate for lower court judges to criticize judicial decisions of higher court judges. Such comments are out-of-bounds and undermine the public’s confidence in the judiciary,” Cook wrote.

Wisconsin’s Republican Party said the court should, at the very least, order Protasiewicz to recuse herself from any case that she’s talked about during the campaign.

“Janet Protasiewicz has decided to disregard her obligation to abide by the Code of Judicial Conduct in her pursuit of a place on the Supreme Court. The Judicial Commission must act and Protasiewicz clearly must recuse herself from participating in cases involving redistricting, abortion and Act 10 union reforms because she’s absolutely unwilling to hear them with an open mind,” Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Mark Jefferson said. “A high court candidate has never taken such an extreme stand in defiance of her responsibility to remain unbiased or set aside her personal beliefs on cases set to come before the Court, and Wisconsin deserves much better than the liberal personal agenda of Janet Protasiewicz.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s governor says he will 100% veto a flat tax, and the top Republican in the State Assembly says he knows that.

Both Gov. Tony Evers and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos talked about the proposal to take Wisconsin to a 3.25% flat income tax during appearances on TV over the weekend.

The governor was on Capital City Sunday in Madison. He once again vowed to kill the flat tax proposal.

”The flat tax proposal, where it’s going to be equal across all parts of Wisconsin, is not in my bailiwick,” Evers said during the interview,

Evers has made it clear in the past that he doesn’t support the Republican’s flat tax proposal, but he said for the first time over the weekend that he may “possibly” veto the entire state budget to stop it from happening.

“[The flat tax] is a death nail for me,” the governor added. “I think our progressive tax system is a good one. And we don’t need to be spending our time and effort to provide the wealthiest of Wisconsinites with an extraordinarily large tax cut.”

Meanwhile Vos was on UPFRONT on Milwaukee TV, talking about the flat tax as well.

“I think we need to have significant tax reform to be able to make sure that Wisconsin remains competitive,” Vos said.

Vos said that may or may not include a 3.25% flat tax.

“That would be my preference. But again, I understand that Gov. Evers has concerns with that,” Vos added. “The most important thing for us to do, is we have to make big efforts toward reducing our tax burden. A flat tax would be ideal. But if we can’t get to ideal, there are other ways to get there.”

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, who introduced the flat tax proposal this month, has said the flat tax proposal currently up for debate may not be the final plan that reaches the governor’s desk.

Gov. Evers will deliver his budget speech next month, and the Republican-controlled legislature will then write the state’s new two-year spending plan.

Evers said on Capital City Sunday that his ideas, even in a Republican budget, “never go away.”

In addition to tax reform, this year’s budget will likely include something new on shared revenue of local governments, school funding, and other plans on how to spend or return Wisconsin’s record $7.1 billion surplus to taxpayers.

(The Center Square) – While Joe Biden and Donald Trump remain very popular with their respective bases, nearly half of voters in their own parties don’t want them to run for president again.

The latest Marquette Law School Poll, released Thursday, shows that 48% of registered Republicans don’t want Trump on the ticket next year. Among Democrats, the poll says 51% of voters don’t want to see Biden run for reelection.

“In the case of the former president and the current president, their parties are pretty divided over them as candidates even though the parties have pretty positive views of them individually,” MU lead pollster Charles Franklin said.

Trump is viewed favorably by 70% of Republican voters. Biden is viewed favorably by 83% of Democrats.

The poll also shows that Trump and Biden would tie in a 2024 head-to-head match-up.

“We see a tie between Biden and Trump, 40% for each of them,” Franklin explained. “That’s an improvement for Trump. In November Biden led 44-34, a 10-point lead.”

The new MU Poll did not ask about a head-to-head between Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but those results may be different.

Republican voters told pollsters that they have an even more favorable view of DeSantis than Trump, with 71% of voters liking DeSantis compared to 70% for Trump.

Biden is the most popular Democrat with the support of 83% of Democrats, Bernie Sanders is second at 75%. Interestingly, the poll says Vice President Kamala Harris is the third most popular Democrat with a 67% favorability rating, while also being the most unpopular Democrat with a 23% unfavorable rating according to the poll.

The most unpopular Republican, according to the poll, is former Vice President Mike Pence. Thirty-three percent of Republicans have an unfavorable view of him, compared to the 28% unfavorable rating for Trump.

(The Center Square) – The State Bar of Wisconsin says the lack of prosecutors and public defenders in the state’s courtrooms will likely get worse.

The past, current, and future heads of the association on Monday warned of a constitutional crisis because there are not enough attorneys to handle cases across the state.

The State Bar is asking lawmakers in Madison to look to use some of Wisconsin’s record $6.6 billion surplus to send more money to both district attorneys and the state public defender’s office.

In a joint statement, the Bar's Margaret W. Hickey, Dean R. Dietrich, and Cheryl Furstace Daniels said, “[We are] substantially concerned over staffing and funding issues in our state’s criminal justice system. Specifically, the staffing crisis in our District Attorney offices, State Public Defender’s office and with those private attorneys that take assigned counsel cases is beyond its breaking point.”

Their warning comes just weeks after Dodge County’s district attorney resigned, leaving that office without a full-time prosecutor.

“District attorneys across the state have either staff shortages or positions they are unable to fill as salaries have not kept pace with the employment market,” the Bar leaders said. “Starting pay for new assistant prosecutors ranks Wisconsin among the bottom 10 nationally.”

The annual starting pay for many assistant prosecutors in Wisconsin starts around $50,000.

The Bar says pay for public defenders is equally low, about $25 per hour, and is one of the reasons it is growing difficult to find lawyers to represent defendants who cannot hire a private attorney.

“State Public Defender Kelli Thompson has also highlighted these same issues with public defenders, indicating that her agency is almost down 20% of their typical attorney employees. The issue is even more eye opening in rural counties with staff vacancies that are not able to be filled,” the Bar leaders added.

The State Bar says a constitutional crisis is looming.

Its statement read, “Make no mistake, this is a defining moment for those that believe in our constitution. This is about victims that are waiting too long for justice. This is about those accused of a crime that are incarcerated without the ability to defend their constitutional right to receive a fair and speedy trial. This is about our hard-working state employees who are reporting emotional exhaustion and work stressors that impact their personal lives.”