The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of Governor Scott Walker and the state’s legislators who passed the controversial union law that captivated the nation last February and March. Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi previously ruled that the Legislature violated the state’s open meetings law in approving the bill. The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Judge Sumi’s decision, ruling she had no authority to interfere with the legislative process. But this matter is about much more than a controversial state-level law and its meanderings through the court process. The original law itself, and its ultimate victory in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, has everything to do with elections.

In 2010, millions of Americans went to the ballot box and handed Democrats across the country election defeats at all levels. The GOP took control of the U.S. House of Representatives, won 29 gubernatorial elections, and established Republican majorities in several state legislatures. Exasperated with out-of-control spending and busted budgets, among other reasons, people wanted a change. The 2010 elections gave the GOP the mandate to effect change from the top down and laterally across the states.

In early 2011, Gov Scott Walker lived up to his campaign promise of pushing for legislation that would finally slow down the public sector union gravy train and empower local governments to negotiate with unions.  We all know the results: tens of thousands of well-organized protestors and union thugs descended on Madison while a dozen or so Democratic lawmakers fled the scene of the crime to stall the legislative process. The law passed in March, and it was quickly struck down by a County Judge.

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If you want to take a pulse on the political vibe in this country, one need only look at Wisconsin.  The state has become the barometer for judging not just the public’s appetite for political battle, but the competitive landscape as well.  The spotlight on anything that has six degrees of separation from a Koch brother has been great drama for Wisconsin’s ongoing soap opera, but audiences in the state and nationwide might get a better show by turning their attention leftward.  Few have examined the strange pattern of money and favor trading that’s been pervading Wisconsin’s beloved circle of progressive politics.

The activity in Wisconsin over the last few months becomes crucially pertinent as the state gears up for the 2012 Wisconsin Senate race.  It’s worth looking at the financial innards  of the Supreme Court race and the protests against Governor Scott Walker in order to assess what the fight for the Wisconsin Senate seat, soon to be vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Herb Kohl, will look like.  What many don’t realize is that this race could have broader implications – not just in national politics, but in specific policy areas, like health care and your personal medical records, for example.  Lots of money, fueled by liberal business interests and an ever-growing progressive movement in Wisconsin, has already been freely flowing.

But is anyone watching? Who are some of these donors?

Let’s start by looking back at the recent Wisconsin protests and the Supreme Court election, and then dissecting some of the money trail.

The hostility stemmed from the union reform bill signed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on March 11^th as a stand-alone portion of the overall budget repair bill.

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On Wednesday, Milwaukee County began recounting over 200 thousand votes cast in the Supreme Court race at the Milwaukee County Sports Complex in Franklin. The process started off shaky with Kloppenburg observers being allowed to enter the corral with the counters, while Prosser observers were not. That problem, as well as several others was corrected as they were discovered. Prosser’s campaign says it is not worried about small instances like these, and expects when the recount is over, Prosser will still be the victor.

In the wake of Thursday’s stunning news that Waukesha County failed to report over 14,000 votes in the city of Brookfield, a cacophony of allegations quickly swirled around the unexpected turn of events.

As soon as the news was confirmed from Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus at a Thursday evening press conference, the topsy-turvy race between Justice David Prosser and Asst. Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg for a ten-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court took another leap into the bounds of the unpredictable and incredible and in turn, has caused many to leap full-on into the conspiratorial realm.

Now, no one is defending Ms. Nickolaus’ competence or lack thereof, and it certainly does not help her credibility that she has been the subject of audits and complaints regarding her antiquated and unreliable record keeping. There is no question that an investigation needs to take place to explain and prevent this from happening again on such a large scale.

But the head-first dive into conspiracy reveals a hypocrisy to match the already unbelievable events in Waukesha. A sampling of statements in the last 24 hours:

• “The mysterious, and arguably timely, discovery of ballots on a personal computer appears to be the latest example of Governor Walker and his friends unfairly using the levers of government to silence Wisconsin voters…this is yet another reminder of the lengths this administration will travel to side with partisan politicians and corporate donors rather than Wisconsinites.”- SEIU Press Release 4/8/11
• “But in order to steal the election, they NEED to be able to keep a recount from occurring, because a recount would expose their attempted fraud to the light of day…They will do EVERYTHING they can to make sure NO ONE checks the paper trail. Because the paper trail will be the nail in their coffin.We must not let them succeed in this attempted fraud.” - Daily Kos “Why Prosser Needed EXACTLY 7500+ votes…” 4/7/11
• “It stretches the bounds of credibility to think that over 14,300 votes were somehow “overlooked” until two days after the election.”- Sen. Mark Miller (D-Madison) 4/7/11
• “Tuesday, the people of Wisconsin took away David Prosser’s seat on the Supreme Court. And yesterday, the Waukesha County Clerk, Kathy Nickolaus, served as Prosser’s sleazy accomplice trying to steal it back.”- One Wisconsin Now 4/8/11
• “Wisconsin is facing the largest potential election fraud case perpetrated in the history of this state and law enforcement must act immediately.”- Scot Ross, Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now 4/8/11

Reflected in these statements is frustration and denial at the thought that despite months of anger and marching in the streets, despite the efforts of millions of dollars, and despite the fairly effective attempt to make a non-partisan judicial race a referendum on Governor Scott Walker, a narrow majority of Wisconsinites still turned out and voted in favor of Justice Prosser.

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With all wards reporting, the unofficial results indicate that Deputy Attorney General Joanne Kloppenburg leads Supreme Court Justice David Prosser by a margin of 204 votes, a margin so narrow the Associated Press declined to declare a winner in the contest.

The margin was .014 percent.

While the 72 counties reported their results throughout Tuesday night, the lead shifted wildly between the two candidates. Wednesday morning, Prosser was leading, but little by little Kloppenburg caught up and finally took the lead herself as wayward wards in Crawford, Dunn, Sauk and other counties were counted.

The narrow margin of victory guarantees a recount, a process that could leave uncertain the fate of the Wisconsin Supreme Court until June.

The election was billed by the Kloppenburg supporters as a referendum on Governor Scott Walker and his proposal to limit collective bargaining for public sector unions. Unions and their third-party groups invested heavily, looking for a powerful ally on the high court.

As soon as the occupation of the State Capitol began in late February, “Vote Kloppenburg” signs began appearing along side banners and placards protesting the changes in Wisconsin’s law governing collective bargaining.

Prosser lost Dane County, home to the State Capitol and tens of thousands of state workers, by nearly 85,000 votes.

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As the Wisconsin Supreme Court race looks to be decided by just a matter of a few hundred votes, questions naturally arise about potential improprieties that may have been conducted in an effort to “get out the vote.” One such instance occurred in Madison where two taxi cab companies decided to offer free rides as part of a “Democracy in Motion” effort to “support our community by helping people get to the polls.”

The cab companies Union Cab Coop and Badger Cab offered free rides to the polls by request in the Dane County communities of:

• Middleton (Kloppenburg: 68%)
• Monona (Kloppenburg: 75%)
• Shorewood (Kloppenburg: 84%)
• City of Madison (Kloppenburg: 82%)
• Blooming Grove (Kloppenburg: 74%)
• Burke (Kloppenburg: 60%)
• Maple Bluff (Kloppenburg: 59%)
• Fitchberg (Kloppenburg: 68%)

Seems rather benign on the surface, but when one considers the areas in which these cabs served, they voted for the JoAnne Kloppenburg to the tune of 79%.

According to Union Cab Coop, they brought 102 people to the polls yesterday. When Media Trackers contacted Badger Cab they had not compiled the exact numbers but estimates were that they brought “around 50 people” to the polls.

Despite this “non-partisan” facade, Union Cab Coop has posted on their website a series of statements that reveal that there may have been more than meets the eye for these friendly free rides.

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Victim of sex abuse Troy Merryfield fired back at JoAnne Kloppenburg and the Greater Wisconsin Committee by appearing in a new ad paid for by Citizens for a Stronger America. In the ad, Merryfield condemns the use of his pain for political gain. Earlier this week Merryfield sent a letter to the Greater Wisconsin Committee and JoAnne Kloppenburg asking them to pull the ad.

For over a week now, the Greater Wisconsin Committee has been running an ad that attacks Justice David Prosser for a 30 year old case involving sex abuse committed by a priest. Prosser was Outagamie County District Attorney at the time.

In a debate on March 28, Prosser asked Kloppenburg to condemn the ad after Troy Merryfield wrote a letter asking the ad to be pulled. Kloppenburg refused.

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On Monday March 21, Supreme Court Justice David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg met at a debate at the Marquette University Law School. The two candidates took questions from former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske, Patrick Marley of the the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, J.R. Ross of Wispolitics.com, and Mike Gousha of WISN. The debate covered a broad range of topics from the recent rancor that seems to divide the court, the Impartial Justice Act, former cases, the Gableman case, and the current issues revolving around the Budget Repair Bill debate.

Below are a few important segments from the debate that prove quite revealing about Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg’s adequacy for the high court.

In this segment, Justice David Prosser notes that on JoAnne Kloppenburg’s campaign Facebook page, she has allowed rhetoric that links her election to overturning the Budget Repair Bill. In addition, Justice Prosser notes that there have been personal attacks made against him on the page as well as Governor Walker. The site has also been a rallying point for information regarding recall petitions and anti-Walker protests. Kloppenburg does not disavow these posts on her page but goes on to say that there is “nothing untrue” about these posts. Media Trackers first brought Kloppenburg’s Facebook page to light in a March 7 article that details many of these posts.

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