What's worse than being bombarded with campaignads from secretive, independent front groups in the final weeks beforean election? Being bombarded with a “disgraceful and deliberatelymisleading ad” actually sponsored by a candidate for the state SupremeCourt himself.
The TV spot, produced and approved by BurnettCounty Judge Michael Gableman, criticizes state Supreme Court JusticeLouis Butler for serving as public defender for Reuben Lee Mitchell,who had been convicted of a sex crime. Butler had gotten Mitchell’sconviction overturned, but his conviction was reinstated by the stateSupreme Court.
Mitchell served out his sentence in full.Gableman’s ad claims that Butler, as a public defender, “worked to putcriminals on the street.” In a statement, Darrin Schmitz, a consultantto the Gableman campaign, defended the ad as “factual” and said itmerely points out the “stark contrasts” in the candidates’ experiences.
But according to the Wisconsin Judicial Campaign IntegrityCommittee (WJCIC), a nonpartisan watchdog group composed of prominentRepublicans and Democrats monitoring this year’s Supreme Court race,Gableman’s attack ad is so sleazy and false that it should be pulledfrom the airwaves.
“The WJCIC believes that the tone andcontent of Judge Gableman’s advertisement are unbecoming a sittingjudge and a candidate for our state’s highest court,” the group said ina statement. “We also believe this disgraceful and deliberatelymisleading ad is a gross violation of the pledge Judge Gableman madeWisconsin voters on Feb. 21, 2008, to ‘refrain from personal attacks onmy opponent.’”
The WJCIC criticized Gablemanwho is running asa law-and-order candidate for the state’s highest court despite hisweak record on criminal prosecutionsfor injecting race-baiting intothe campaign. Both Justice Butler and Mitchell are African American.
TheWJCIC said the ad was in “an offensive, race-baiting style reminiscentof the infamous ‘Willie Horton’ advertisement” that stirred up racistfears in the 1988 presidential campaign. The group went even further bysaying that Gableman is either not intelligent enough to understand therole of a defense attorney or is deliberately lying about Butler’s rolein the case: “We believe Judge Gableman is deliberately misrepresentingthe facts regarding this case and Justice Butler’s role in it, and itappears Judge Gableman is doing so either knowingly or with recklessdisregard for the truth or falsity of his campaign statements.”
Evenright-wing radio host Charlie Sykes had to “throw a flag on our ownteam” and called the ad “misleading.” The WJCIC has also criticized twoads produced by the pro-Gableman group Coalition for America’s Familiesbecause they contained lies about Butler’s record.
Last week, the Shepherd reportedthat pro-Gableman ads touting the judge’s record of fighting arsonistswere wildly overblown. Gableman prosecuted only one arsonist and lostthat case.
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