Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Michael Screnock gets $142,000 from GOP in five weeks
Patrick MarleyMADISON – More than half the money Supreme Court candidate Michael Screnock raised in the first five weeks of the year — almost $111,000 — came from the state Republican Party.
A report the Sauk County judge filed late Monday showed he'd received far more from the state party than what was revealed in a report he'd filed over the weekend, which included more than $31,000 he'd recently received from the GOP.
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The fuller report showed Screnock raised about $201,000 from Jan. 1 to Feb. 5, with nearly $111,000 of it coming from the state Republican Party. The subsequent party donation means he's now taken in more than $142,000 from the GOP in what is nominally a nonpartisan race.
Screnock's opponents — Madison attorney Tim Burns and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet — spoke at the state Democratic Party convention last year but have not received financial backing from the Democrats.
A Feb. 20 primary will reduce the field to two for the April 3 general election.
The GOP help gave Screnock the strongest fundraising of the three candidates for the first part of the year. In the first part of the year, Burns raised about $79,000 and Dallet raised about $92,000.
As of Feb. 5, Screnock had about $90,000 in the bank, Burns had about $126,000 and Dallet had about $237,000, their filings showed.
Dallet has had the financial edge in the race, in part, because she put $200,000 of her own money into the race early on.
Burns and Dallet criticized Screnock for the GOP support, but for different reasons. Burns calls himself a Democrat, while Dallet says courts should be nonpartisan.
"Pretending that these Supreme Court races are non-partisan has allowed right-wing stealth candidates like Judge Screnock to take over our judiciary," Burns said in a statement. "We have to take the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a new direction, and I'm the only candidate in this race who wants to lead the fight to do just that."
Dallet's campaign manager, Jessica Lovejoy, issued a statement that said: “In a time of extreme partisanship and divide in this country and this state, the last thing we need is more partisan courts."
Screnock campaign consultant Sean Lansing has said Screnock welcomes backing from any group that supports an impartial judiciary, adding that Burns and Dallet "seemingly want to stifle free speech from sources they disagree with or find objectionable.”