WisPolitics.com Election Blog

Citizen Action Wisconsin has filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Judicial Commission alleging Supreme Court candidate Michael Gableman violated the Code of Judicial Conduct in his first TV ad of the campaign.

A Gableman campaign consultant said the complaint was meritless.

The spot mentions the case of Reuben Lee Mitchell, who was convicted of raping an 11-year old girl. The narrator in the ad says, "Butler found a loophole; Mitchell went on to molest another child."

Butler was Mitchell's public defender and appealed his conviction. While he won at the appeals court, the Supreme Court reinstated the conviction, and Mitchell served his sentence. Following his parole, he committed the second offense.

Citizen Action wrote in a letter to the commission that the spot "knowingly and with reckless disregard misrepresents the facts in the case." The group claims the ad implies that Butler was a judge at the time of the case and that Mitchell was released because of Butler's actions.

Gableman campaign adviser Darrin Schmitz said the ad is factually accurate.

"It's nothing more than a stunt," said Schmitz of the public announcement of the complaint, which is typically handled in private.

"Citizen Action is trying to divert the voters' attention away from the real choice in the race," Schmitz said.

The Judicial Commission acknowledged receipt of the complaint in a statement, but noted its proceedings are confidential and declined further comment.

*Read the Citizen Action letter:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/large/080318_CAW_complaint.pdf
*Read the Citizen Action release:
http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=121235

-- By Staff

Labels: 2008 spring election