Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton stood outside the Supreme Court Chambers in the State Capitol on Thursday, October 22nd to call for removing special interest money from Wisconsin Supreme Court elections. Joining Lawton in pushing for passage of the Impartial Justice Bill (SB 40/AB 65) were former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske, long-time Republican campaign operative and clean elections advocate Bill Kraus, lead Assembly author Gordon Hintz, retired Middleton High School Principal Tom Vandervest and good government activists from across the Madison area. This was the second of four events hosted by Lt. Governor Lawton to build public support for immediate passage of the Impartial Justice Bill. Others were held in Milwaukee, La Crosse, and Eau Claire.
“A fair and impartial judicial system is the foundation of a democracy, essential to upholding the protection of constitutional rights for all of us. Every Wisconsin citizen must have complete confidence that decisions interpreting the laws of our state are made by justices who are accountable to the facts of the case, not the well-heeled special interest groups who contributed to their campaigns,” Lawton said. “I urge my colleagues in the Assembly and Senate to pass the Impartial Justice Bill now. Wisconsin citizens cannot afford to wait any longer.”
The Impartial Justice Bill passed the Assembly Committee on Elections and Campaign Reform and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Corrections, Insurance, Campaign Finance Reform and Housing earlier this year. The bill currently awaits action by the Joint Committee on Finance before proceeding to the full Assembly and Senate.
“The citizens of Wisconsin deserve a judiciary that provides fair and impartial decision-making. Trust in the court system has eroded by virtue of the incredible amounts of money invested into recent Supreme Court races, often on behalf of both candidates,” Geske said. “The Impartial Justice Bill will play a major role in restoring peoples’ trust that Wisconsin cases will be decided solely on the merits without influence from any particular special interest group.”
“As a long-time Republican who has served as co-chair of a former Supreme Court campaign, I firmly believe that the intense partisanship and ideological beholdeness plaguing judicial elections goes beyond unseemly to appalling,” said Kraus.
Lt. Governor Lawton has long advocated for comprehensive campaign finance reform that starts with full public financing of Supreme Court elections. She sits on the National Advisory Committee of Americans for Campaign Reform and formerly served on Chief Justice Nathan Heffernan’s Commission on Clean Elections.
