Blogging Blue

So Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Michael Gableman has said his campaign will not resort to dishonest attack ads during the race between him and Louis Butler, but given the revelations that Gableman may have gotten his seat due to some generous campaign donations to former Governor Scott McCallum, can he really be trusted?

I’m thinking not, considering the fact that despite his promise to run a clean campaign, Gableman’s already pulling out all the stops in his attempt to unseat Butler. What’s more, surrogates of Michael Gableman have spreading blatant lies in regards to with Justice Butler’s vote in the case of to the case of Richard A. Brown, a sexual predator whose petition for supervised release had been denied in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, resulting in an appeal. The attack in question follows:

Louis Butler provided the deciding vote to overturn a sexual predator decision by a circuit court, resulting in the release of the predator into Milwaukee County.

Quite a damning attack on its face, except for the fact that Richard A. Brown was never released from custody at any point. Further, Justice Butler didn’t cast the “deciding” vote - he simply joined the majority decision.

So if Michael Gableman can’t be counted on to keep his word, and he can’t be trusted to go through the proper channels to get his job, how can he be counted on to act ethically as a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice?

No Comments »

As I first noted a few days ago, the folks at One Wisconsin Now have been busy exposing the sordid details behind Michael Gableman’s appointment to the Burnett County Circuit Court.

As first reported by OWN, former Governor Scott McCallum appointed Gableman to the Burnett County Circuit Court after bypassing the established appointment process, and it was also noted Gableman had donated $2,500 to McCallum’s re-election campaign, including $1,250 in the midst of the appointment process for the Circuit Court seat that Gableman was appointed to. As sordid as the entire situation is, it’s gotten worse for Michael Gableman, with Scott McCallum’s admission on Thursday he manipulated the judicial appointment process established
by his own executive orders in order to appoint Michael Gableman to the Burnett County Circuit Court.

“[A]s governor, the final decision to appoint a judge was mine
alone…,” McCallum said through a Gableman campaign press release.
The media has reported McCallum has refused press calls since an
investigation by One Wisconsin Now released Wednesday showed Gableman
was appointed judge after McCallum ignored established protocol for a
candidate who neither applied in time, nor was a finalist recommended
by McCallum’s own judicial advisory council.

“Governor McCallum confirmed what we already knew, that Mike Gableman
got his job as a judge because that’s what McCallum wanted for his
donor and fundraiser,” said Scot Ross, Executive Director of One
Wisconsin Now.

If Michael Gableman couldn’t be counted on to act above reproach and get his Circuit Court seat without having to buy it, then how can he be counted on to act in an ethical and impartial manner as a justice on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court? Wisconsin deserves nothing less than a judiciary with the highest judicial ethics and experience, and the circumstances surrounding Gableman’s appointment to the Burnett County Circuit Court hang over him like a dark cloud, much like Annette Ziegler’s own ethical problems have continued to hang over her even after her term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court began.

Wisconsin can ill afford two ethically challenged Supreme Court Justices.

4 Comments »

With the race between Louis Butler and Michael Gableman for Butler’s seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court due to heat up, I figured now would be a good time to take a closer look at the candidacy of Judge Gableman. As first reported by the folks at One Wisconsin Now, it appears Judge Gableman was appointed to his seat on the Burnett County Circuit Court under some suspicious circumstances. In the interest of keeping things neat and tidy, here’s a list of the suspicious circumstances surrounding Michael Gableman’s appointment to the Burnett County Circuit Court:

• Gableman did not go through the process for selecting judges which had been established by then-Governor Scott McCallum.
• Gableman had not applied for the Burnett County judgeship by the deadline established by the Governor’s Notice of Judicial Vacancy.
• Gableman was not one of two finalists selected by the Governor’s Advisory Council on Judicial Selection.
• Gableman served as a Republican fundraiser for Governor McCallum in the midst of the selection process to fill the vacancy that was later awarded to Gableman.
• Gableman donated $2,500 to Governor McCallum’s re-election campaign.
• No records of Gableman being interviewed for the Burnett County Circuit Court seat by Governor McCallum could be found, despite open records requests.
• No records of Gableman’s application for the vacancy could be found. OWN did find a copy of a resume Gableman faxed to the Governor’s office, but no copy of a formal application was found, despite applications being found for all the other candidates.
• Gableman arranged and attended a private breakfast with Governor McCallum at the Executive Residence in March 2002, shortly before he was appointed to fill the Burnett County Circuit Court vacancy.

Now sure, I suppose all these points could just be a happy coincidence, but as when I put all those points together, I can’t help but think Michael Gableman’s seat on the Burnett County Circuit Court was bought and paid for, and all it seemed to cost was $2,500.

2 Comments »

I’ve read that Michael Gableman has said his interest in the Wisconsin State Supreme Court seat currently held by Louis Butler has nothing to do with partisan politics, saying:

“I am not running to become a lawmaker,” Gableman said in a Capitol press conference. “Lawmaking should be left to the legislative and executive branches. I believe that justice comes from administering the law with an understanding that its source is the consent of the governed, not one’s own personal ideology.”

It’s curious then, given Gableman’s insistence he’s not a partisan, that he’d spend so much time quoting from former Wisconsin State Supreme Court justice (and far-right conservative) Diane Sykes during his announcement of his candidacy for the State Supreme Court seat currently held by Louis Butler. The reality here is Gableman knows 2008 promises to be a bad year for Republican candidates all across Wisconsin, so instead of just owning up to the fact that he’s a conservative through and through, he’s decided to take a different approach in saying he’d be “nonpartisan.” Given how strongly his candidacy has been embraced by those on the right, it’s plainly obvious Michael Gableman is the candidate of conservatives in Wisconsin, and ultimately his status as the candidate of the right will relegate him to the loser’s column in the 2008 elections.

1 Comment »