Wisconsin Supreme Court Campaign Powered by Billionaire Donors – Wisconsin Testing

Both Wisconsin Supreme Court campaigns were fueled by cash provided by billionaire donors through state democratic and republican parties, according to recently submitted reports on the campaign.

Dane Susan Crawford County Judge received $ 2 million from the Wisconsin Democratic Party after donations from the billionaire party George Soros and the Illinois Government Jbpritzker. Soros gave $ 1 million to the party, and Pritzker gave $ 500,000.

The judge of the Wowsh Brad Shimel County, a former Republican Prosecutor of Republican, received $ 1.675 million from the State Republican Party after the billionaire of Illinois Liz Uhlein donated $ 975,000 and the billionaire of Belite Diandix gave $ 850,000 to the party.

State legislation allows party committees to make an unlimited contribution to the candidates. The maximum donation authorized for the candidates of the Supreme Court is $ 20,000.

The competition for an open place on the court to replace retired justice Anne Walsh Bradley will decide the ideological swing of the body. Two years ago, when justice Janet Protasevich defeated former justice Dan Kelly to provide a majority for court liberals, racing costs.

Shimel jokes on the trail of the campaign on re -traveling to Menard to buy knee pads because of all the forgives he had to make – comments that he attracted an ethics complaint from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign to violate the State Judicial Code , which prevents court candidates from a direct request for money.

A total of Crawford raised nearly $ 4.5 million during the reporting period between January 1 and February 3, giving her a total of over $ 7.7 million since he entered the race last year. It ended the reporting period by $ 3.1 million in the bank.

Shimel raised $ 2.7 million during the reporting period and finished it with $ 2.4 million in money.

Crawford received eight maximum donations of $ 20,000, including one of Colorado’s billionaire Pat Striker. Only more than $ 1 million in her donations came from outside the state.

Shimel received four maximum donations, including one of the Hendrix. He also received donations from three Republican members of the Congress, including $ 18,000 from Wisconsin respectively. Tom Tiffany, $ 18,000 from Ohio reporter Jim Jordan and $ 15,000 from Oregon reporter Cliff Benz. He raised $ 66,614 from donors outside the state.