Another candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to face a barrage of negative campaign ads this spring because -- gasp! -- he once worked as a public defender.
You might think 14 years as an assistant public defender would only help Randy Koschnick's chances in the April 7 election. It would seem to add to his legal experience, which includes a decade as a Jefferson County judge.
But in Wisconsin's nasty and broken system for electing high court justices, Koschnick's experience as a public defender is a campaign liability.
That's because assistant public defenders are often assigned to represent unsavory people who can't afford private attorneys. And back in the 1990s, Koschnick defended cop killer Ted Oswald in a high-profile case sure to be sensationalized this spring in misleading attack ads.
Already, the liberal group One Wisconsin Now is highlighting the case, and a conservative radio commentator has all but written off Koschnick's chances.
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"Randy Koschnick is the lawyer who tried to help Ted Oswald get away with murdering a cop," Milwaukee radio host Mark Belling wrote in a recent newspaper column.
Actually, Koschnick was the public servant who dutifully ensured that even those accused of the worst crimes received legal representation -- a hallmark of the American judicial system.
To her credit, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson has pledged not to exploit Koschnick's work as a public defender, which she called noble, according to the Associated Press this week. Koschnick is challenging Abrahamson for a 10-year term.
But shadowy special interest groups aren't likely to follow Abrahamson's example. Liberal groups mad about the ads that smeared Justice Louis Butler for his work as a public defender last year can now turn the tables by attacking Koschnick, a self-described conservative, for the same supposed offense.
Butler last year became the state's first sitting justice defeated in an election since 1967. TV attack ads dubbed Butler "Loophole Louie" for favoring criminals over police as a public defender -- in other words, for doing his job. And the candidate who defeated Butler, Justice Michael Gableman, is under investigation for a possible ethics violation related to one of his outlandish ads.
The personal attacks and gutter politics are a disgraceful way for Wisconsin to pick its top court. The quality and independence of the state's Supreme Court is slipping along with public trust in its decisions.
Selecting justices based on merit -- rather than mudslinging -- is the answer.
Copyright © 2009, The Wisconsin State Journal
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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
