The state GOP has filed a complaint with the Judicial Commission accusing Supreme Court candidate Rebecca Dallet of using her Milwaukee County courtroom to raise campaign donations from attorneys with cases before her.
Dallet’s campaign called the complaint baseless and took a shot at rival Michael Screnock, a Sauk County judge.
“The Screnock campaign is running scared,” said campaign manager Jessica Lovejoy. “Partisan attack dogs can file all the baseless complaints they want; it won’t fix his lack of experience or allegiance to big-money special interests”
The complaint focuses on a Wisconsin State Journal story that detailed $21,100 in contributions from 39 attorneys with 102 cases before Dallet’s court.
The complaint singles out eight cases in which the state GOP claims Dallet solicited and raised contributions within two weeks of a hearing or conference with the attorney who contributed to her Supreme Court campaign. It lists another six cases in which the donations came within a week of the attorneys being in her courtroom.
The complaint says while the Code of Judicial Conduct allows attorneys to contribute to judges hearing their cases, a judge is not allowed “to utilize her courtroom and her court calendar to raise campaign funds in the matter that Dallet did.”
It also charges because of how she received the donations shortly after attorneys appeared before her, Dallet should have recused herself from the cases.
The complaint asks the commission to open an investigation into Dallet’s actions.
Read the complaint:
https://www.wispolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/180315GOP.pdf
