10:37 PM: Ziegler, Clifford to Face Off April 3
Washington County Judge Annette Ziegler ran away with today's Supreme Court primary and will face Madison attorney Linda Clifford April 3.
The three-way primary had been perceived largely as a two-person race between Ziegler and Clifford heading into the primary. But with 85 percent of precincts reporting, Ziegler had 58 percent of the vote, while Clifford was a distant second with 26 percent. Attorney Joseph Sommers -- who raised less than one-tenth of the other two candidates -- was third with 16 percent.
Ziegler was the only one of the three to run a TV ad leading up to today's primary. She also ran a radio spot statewide, and the Club for Growth-Wisconsin did an issue ad praising her as well.
While she acknowledged that the commercials were an important tool in reaching out to voters, Ziegler insisted her good showing were results of an all-around effort.
"I've been working hard. I've gone to all 72 counties in the state," Ziegler said. "I think people think that it's important to have experience as a judge and a prosecutor if you want to sit on the highest court in the state."
Clifford said she did not make a mistake in deciding to conserve her resources, pointing out turnout for the primary was expected to be especially low that it made more sense to put her money into the final push of the campaign. She also estimated Ziegler and "her special interest groups" spent half a million dollars on the primary.
Clifford reported $343,144 cash on hand as of Feb. 5, compared to $269,910 for Ziegler.
"We'll be spending our resources wisely now that we know who we'll be facing, and we won't have to rely on out-of-state interest groups to get our message across and we won't have ot rely on extremist rhetoric, either," Clifford said.
Sommers did not immediately return a call from WisPolitics Tuesday night.
*See the WisPolitics AdWatch for the Ziegler and Club for Growth spots:
http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Content=24
*See Clifford's campaign finance report:
ftp://doaftp04.doa.state.wi.us/electionsboard/2007/CliffordL-PRPS07.xls
*See Ziegler's report:
ftp://doaftp04.doa.state.wi.us/electionsboard/2007/ZieglerA-PRPS07.csv
-- By Greg Bump and JR Ross
Labels: 2007 spring primary