Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Dan Kelly’s failure to complete survey on democracy deeply troubling

Editor’s Observe: We invited Dan Kelly’s marketing campaign to answer two factors on this op-ed: Why he didn’t reply to the group’s judicial survey and the way his authorized work for the Republican Occasion might exert a partisan affect on the courtroom. Learn his response right here.

The power and stability of democracy in America is what makes our nation the perfect place to do enterprise. Two years in the past, we shaped the Wisconsin Enterprise Leaders for Democracy as a result of we firmly imagine that Wisconsin should have a vibrant democracy that upholds freedoms for all residents for us to maneuver our economic system ahead. 

Over the previous two years, our group has labored to precise assist for frontline election staff and directors across the state, promote civic engagement throughout the enterprise group, and ask the candidates for governor to pledge their assist of democratic rules.  

Extra:Enterprise leaders questionnaire for Wisconsin Supreme Court docket race extra acceptable for legislative candidates

At this time, we focus our consideration on the Wisconsin Supreme Court docket election going down this April.  

The Wisconsin Supreme Court docket is an elected physique that exists to defend our freedoms underneath our state legal guidelines and state structure.  Whereas the courtroom ought to be non-partisan, we have now seen rising partisanship on the bench in recent times, with justices placing their very own ideologies forward of the rule of regulation.  Notably, over half of the courtroom’s choices within the 2021-2022 session had been cut up by a 4-3 vote alongside social gathering traces.

Extra:The struggle for democracy in Wisconsin is not partisan. In actual fact, it’s good for enterprise.

The winner of the April election will serve a 10-year time period and can decide the steadiness of the courtroom for a number of years to return.  Most of the freedoms we take pleasure in as Wisconsinites will come earlier than the Wisconsin Supreme Court docket within the subsequent few years, equivalent to entry to reproductive healthcare, our freedom to take part within the democratic course of, and ruling on the equity of present or future district maps.  

Maybe most critically, the brand new courtroom will hear all circumstances main as much as and after the 2024 presidential election, throughout which period the courtroom might be requested to rule on state electors, determine on challenges to the voting course of and even adjudicate the election outcomes. 

The stakes couldn’t be larger.  As a non-partisan group of enterprise leaders from each political events, we imagine it’s in the perfect pursuits of all Wisconsinites to elect justices who will uphold our freedoms and assist the rules of democracy on which our nation was based.  

Earlier than the February main, we requested each candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court docket, no matter social gathering affiliation, to answer a five-question letter, in hopes of gaining perception into their views on issues necessary to democracy which have appeared and can proceed to seem earlier than the courtroom.  

Of the 2 remaining candidates, Choose Janet Protasiewicz responded in full, with a considerate articulation of her views and judicial philosophy.  She wrote of her dismay that the 2020 election consequence was upheld by solely a 4-3 vote of the courtroom, emphasizing that “such a excessive partisanship is likely one of the the explanation why I made a decision to run for Wisconsin Supreme Court docket; we have to return equity and customary sense to this physique.”

In stark distinction, former Justice Dan Kelly didn’t reply or acknowledge our inquiry after a number of requests.  Kelly’s refusal to interact in a civil dialogue on primary questions of democracy and election regulation is troubling at finest, and disqualifying at worst.  Mixed with current revelations that he obtained six-figure funds for consulting for the Republican Nationwide Committee, we will solely conclude {that a} vote for Kelly would ship this courtroom right into a partisan tailspin.  

We’re inspired by Protasiewicz’s response in assist of democracy and invite you to learn her response in its entirety at www.wibusinessfordemocracy.org.

This election is simply too necessary to vote merely on social gathering traces and ignore the place we have now been the previous few years.  We encourage each voter to think about fastidiously the gravity of the problems that can most definitely come earlier than this courtroom.  Our freedoms and financial prospects for the subsequent decade cling within the steadiness.  

We encourage all to vote for democracy and transfer Wisconsin ahead.  

Anoop Prakash, John Florsheim, and Sachin Shivaram, are members of the Wisconsin Enterprise Leaders for Democracy. Prakash is a division president at REV Group. Previous to REV, Anoop held management roles in enterprise and authorities, together with within the administration of President George W. Bush. He’s a former Marine Corps officer, and serves on the board of the Starvation Job Drive. John Florsheim, a very long time resident of Wisconsin, is president of Weyco Group in Milwaukee, a distributor and marketer of footwear manufacturers with over 250 workers positioned in Glendale. Sachin Shivaram is CEO of Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry, a 115-year-old family-owned manufacturing firm in Manitowoc. He’s lively in numerous group organizations, together with the New North and Higher Inexperienced Bay Neighborhood Basis. He’s a trustee at Lawrence College and was additionally elected as a city supervisor in Ledgeview.

Extra:Supreme courtroom candidates Janet Protasiewicz and Daniel Kelly on 4 subjects