(C) Wisconsin Watch
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Wisconsin Supreme Court debate set for late March after Janet Protasiewicz declines several others [1]
['Alexander Shur', 'Wisconsin State Journal', 'Samantha Madar', 'State Journal']
Date: 2023-03
Conservative Dan Kelly and liberal Janet Protasiewicz have agreed to one Wisconsin Supreme Court debate before they face off in a crucial election to decide the court’s ideological balance.
The announcement of the March 21 debate — co-hosted by the State Bar of Wisconsin, WisPolitics.com and WISC-TV (Ch. 3) — follows several forums or debates being canceled or adjusted after Protasiewicz declined to participate in them.
The candidates will face off in an April 4 election for a 10-year term on the state’s highest court.
The race is already the most-expensive judicial election ever in American history.
The winning candidate will join the court as it appears slated to weigh in on the future of abortion in Wisconsin. It also could decide how the state’s legislative maps are drawn, the 2024 presidential election and have the final say on other policies as the Republican-controlled Legislature and Democratic governor’s office continue to clash.
The State Bar of Wisconsin debate, which will begin at 12:45 p.m. and be broadcast at 4 p.m. on WISC-TV (Ch. 3), so far is the only scheduled post-primary debate featuring both candidates.
Other meetings set
Kelly and Protasiewicz have agreed to meet separately with the Wisconsin State Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial boards. Protasiewicz’s campaign said she also agreed to participate in a March 28 forum hosted by All Voting is Local, Campus Vote Project and VoteRiders. Kelly couldn’t participate in that forum because of a scheduling conflict, a spokesperson said.
“Judge Protasiewicz looks forward to the opportunity to participate in the State Bar of Wisconsin’s debate and these other forums, and highlight her three decades of experience and service to the state,” campaign spokesperson Sam Roecker said in a statement.
Most of the hosts of the events Protasiewicz declined to attend have welcomed Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates in the past.
Contenders for public office across the country are increasingly less likely to participate in debates, often to avoid the risk of public gaffes or allowing opponents to voice attacks that can be publicized later.
Of the many proposed debates, Kelly’s campaign tweeted that he “is ready to be at all of them.”
Kelly spokesperson Ben Voelkel said in a statement that Protasiewicz isn’t willing to defend or explain her record.
Strategy involved
Given Protasiewicz’s first-place finish in the Wisconsin Supreme Court primary followed by liberals outspending conservatives so far in the general election, the difference in Protasiewicz and Kelly’s willingness to debate is consistent with recent campaigns’ debate strategy, said Anthony Chergosky, a UW-La Crosse political scientist.
“When a candidate has a huge spending advantage and is leading in the campaign, they may be unwilling to take the risk of the unpredictable environment of a debate,” he said. “And meanwhile, a candidate who is being outspent and is trailing in the polls will be eager to participate in a debate.”
Some examples:
Kelly agreed to participate in an event hosted by the liberal American Constitution Society, but Roecker said Protasiewicz couldn’t make it due to a scheduling conflict. The organization hosted a pre-primary debate in 2019, months before then-Justice Kelly lost to liberal Justice Jill Karofsky.
Protasiewicz’s campaign also said scheduling conflicts would keep her from participating in a nonpartisan Milwaukee Press Club event, where the candidates were scheduled to take questions from a media panel and the audience on March 14, according to Club President Maryann Lazarski. Kelly will still participate in the panel, which is co-hosted by WisPolitics.com and the Rotary Club of Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Press Club hosted conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn in 2019; his challenger, Appeals Judge Lisa Neubauer, didn’t accept the invitation to appear at the same event.
On Wednesday, WISN-TV announced Protasiewicz declined to participate in its debate; Kelly had agreed to it. Hagedorn and Neubauer appeared at a WISN debate in 2019, which was co-hosted by Marquette University.
A planned forum at Marquette University also was cancelled, a university spokesperson told the Kelly campaign in an email, without specifying why.
Replying to the cancellation email, Voelkel said, “We are happy to do this at any date, time or location, even if Protasiewicz does not participate.”
A Marquette spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment about why the event was cancelled.
Both candidates were invited to participate in a PBS Wisconsin debate, which has hosted Wisconsin Supreme Court debates since at least 1995, but only Kelly has agreed to the debate so far, said Frederica Freyberg, the executive producer of news for PBS Wisconsin.
Trend toward fewer
In the past, voters could assume that debates would happen in high-profile campaigns, Chergosky said.
“They can no longer make that assumption,” he added.
Aside from campaigns’ political priorities, political observers have pointed to a clear loser produced by candidates’ continued unwillingness to debate: the public.
“Though such debates may be a casualty of electoral calculus, their diminishing frequency means the loss of a valuable democratic institution that encourages principled policy engagement and dialogue in an ideas-challenged political moment,” Colby Galliher, a senior research analyst at the Washington, D.C., based think tank Brookings Institution, said in a report about declining debate participation rates across America.
Last year, Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate candidates participated in two debates after the primary. They stuck close to their campaign talking points in the first one and were more animated in the second one. The gubernatorial candidates participated in just one debate, also sticking close to their talking points.
That’s in line with national trends.
In 2010, contenders in the top-five U.S. Senate elections debated 17 times, according to the Brookings Institution. By 2022, contenders in the top-five U.S. Senate contests only debated six times.
“Even if debates ultimately don’t decide elections, they still matter as a ritual in democracy, and they still matter as a norm in our political system,” Chergosky said.
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