by Steve Cortes
Early voting has begun in Wisconsin for the state’s High Court, and this election becomes the most important decision of 2023, with ramifications far beyond the Badger state, and into 2024.
Tested constitutionalist Daniel Kelly seeks to rejoin the state Supreme Court in Madison. Kelly is an unabashed conservative, but also a careful, balanced, and restrained jurist who does not legislate from the bench or engage in partisan power grabs.
His opponent Janet Protasiewicz brings exactly the opposite agenda to Wisconsin citizens. Judge Janet carries a dangerous record as a highly radical, soft-on-crime leftist. Moreover, she overtly promises to use the state’s high court inflict a liberal, highly partisan agenda by fiat, from the bench.
Crime has become a major concern nationwide as feckless mayors in big blue cities like Milwaukee abdicate their duty to enforce law-and-order. Exacerbating the problem, Soros-backed prosecutors across America refuse to seek serious punishments for the purveyors of mayhem in our streets.
To this point, a recent Marquette University poll found that 85% of citizens in Wisconsin are concerned about crime, with 57% reporting as “very concerned.”
This massive worry among Wisconsin citizens seems entirely justified given the horrific and high profiles examples of abject lawlessness seen there in recent years. The Kenosha riots and the carnage of the Waukesha anti-white terror attack understandably compel Wisconsin voters to seek public leaders willing to protect law-abiding citizens and private property.
Sadly, as a Milwaukee circuit court judge, Janet Protasiewicz failed miserably at the fundamental judicial tasks of defending the innocent and preserving public order.
In 2019, Quantrell Bounds posted a sickening video to social media of him beating and raping a 12 year old girl. For this heinous abuse against a precious child, Bounds faced as much as 60 years in prison. Judge Janet sentenced him to only 5 years in prison…and then suspended the sentence! Bounds went free with nothing but probation.
Not surprisingly, Bounds was arrested again recently for illegal felony possession of a firearm. That case is pending.
Tragically, this outrage was hardly the only time that Judge Janet bestowed leniency upon a perpetrator of sexual violence against children. In 2020 Kenneth Wright pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a 15 year old girl, whom he impregnated. Judge Janet used the Covid virus as an excuse to release Wright, even though he was sentenced to three years in prison for his crime. Judge Protasiewicz stated: “But for COVID, I would be giving you some House of Correction time…these are strange times, Mr. Wright. I’m not going to do that.”
“Strange times,” indeed, Judge. Allowing child rapists to walk free is never a just or reasonable idea. In this case, the tragedy continued, as Wright killed a Wisconsin woman while he was drunk driving shortly after his release by Protasiewicz.
Aside from her disastrous record on crime, Protasiewicz also pre-promises to directly interfere with Wisconsin’s political maps. Specifically, Protasiewicz makes no secret of her clear plans for judicial activism. She openly schemes to reverse the state court’s current split 4-3 conservative court into an aggressive partisan weapon for a leftist agenda that supplants populist rights. Protasiewicz has already declared the present Wisconsin congressional districts as “absolutely, positively rigged…they do not reflect the people in this state.”
Note the arrogance of this radical candidate, pontificating on her singular assessment and pre-promising to rule against the current map if she wins the election. The US Constitutional clearly delegates redistricting powers to the state legislatures – and yet Protasiewicz brazenly positions herself as sole arbiter of partisan political disputes that should be decided by voters at the ballot box. She also conveniently ignores clear judicial precedent. In each of the last two election cycles, the US Supreme Court refused to intervene on behalf of liberal litigants challenging the Wisconsin maps.
These debates on election procedures elevate this state race to national prominence. Why? Because Wisconsin is, of course, the very definition of a swing state. Consider that each of the last two presidential elections was decided by fewer than 30,000 votes. Going back thirty years, except for Barack Obama, no presidential candidate has secured 50% of the vote in this independently-minded Badger battleground, see the results:
Off year elections truly matter, and this one more than most. Reject the radicalism of Janet Protasiewicz and affirm the principled conservatism of Daniel Kelly. Doing so will protect the safety of Wisconsin families now…and help guard national elections into 2024.
Steve Cortes is a previous advisor to former President Donald Trump.
Photo “Daniel Kelly” by Daniel Kelly. Photo “Janet Protasiewicz” by Janet Protasiewicz. Background Photo “Voting Booths” by Tim Evanson. CC BY-SA 2.0.
