October 17, 2023
An outside electioneering group has dropped more than a half a million dollars on broadcast and digital ads to oppose the threatened impeachment of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz.
A Better Wisconsin Together said early last month it would sponsor a seven-figure media campaign shortly after GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos threatened to impeach Protasiewicz if she decided to hear certain cases that may come before the court. Protasiewicz’s election in April flipped the ideological balance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court from conservative to liberal.
Between mid-September and mid-October, the group spent about $560,000 on network, cable, and radio ads in the Madison, Milwaukee, and Green Bay markets, according to a review of ad buy documents by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
Vos claimed Protasiewicz prejudged redistricting maps favoring Republicans that were approved by the court earlier by calling them “rigged” during her campaign.
The court has accepted a challenge to the current maps and Protasiewicz said she will not recuse herself from the case.
A Better Wisconsin Together’s television ad said Republican lawmakers were “radical” and “extremist” for threatening to impeach Protasiewicz, who won her election by a whopping 11 percent. The ad urged listeners to contact their legislators and tell them “to respect Wisconsin Voters and oppose this unconstitutional impeachment.
Two digital ads – here and here – and a mail campaign targeting eight GOP legislators carried a similar message.
The mail campaign warned that “extremists in Madison want to override our votes and unconstitutionally impeach Justice Janet Protasiewicz for political reasons. That’s not how democracy works.” The mailings urged constituents in those targeted legislative districts to contact their state senator and tell them to oppose impeaching Protasiewicz.
Earlier this year, A Better Wisconsin Together, which has spent millions of dollars at election time in recent years to support Democratic legislative and statewide candidates, spent $6.3 million to support Protasiewicz’s election to the bench. For more details about their activities in that election, go here.