The April 5th state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, where incumbent Justice David Prosser is seeking re-election, is now being shaken up by news about the interactions on the court: Specifically, Prosser has admitted to calling Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, one of the court’s liberals, “a total bitch.”
A state Supreme Court election would not normally be national news. But in Wisconsin’s now-highly polarized politics, the race has quickly turned into a proxy political battle over Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s new anti-public employee union law. Conservatives are supporting Prosser, a former Republican state Assembly Speaker, and liberals backing Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:
Prosser acknowledged the incident recently and said he thought it was becoming public now in an attempt to hurt him politically. Prosser faces Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg in the April 5 election.
He said the outburst came after Abrahamson took steps to undermine him politically and to embarrass him and other court conservatives.
“In the context of this, I said, ‘You are a total bitch,’” Prosser said.
“I probably overreacted, but I think it was entirely warranted. . . . They (Abrahamson and Justice Ann Walsh Bradley) are masters at deliberately goading people into perhaps incautious statements. This is bullying and abuse of very, very long standing.”
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