Editor’s note: Wausau Pilot & Review gladly publishes commentary from readers, residents and candidates for local offices. The views of readers and columnists are independent of this newspaper and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wausau Pilot & Review. To submit, email [email protected] or mail to 500 N. Third St., Suite 208-8, Wausau, Wis. 54403.

Dear editor,

On April 4, we will elect a Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge who will serve a 10-year term. Dan Kelly, the conservative candidate, has demonstrated through his actions, associations and statements that he is unfit to serve as an impartial justice.

  • Kelly attended a law school that was not accredited.
  • Kelly, in a 2014 blog post, described Social Security as “involuntary servitude” by taxpayers to benefit those whom he pegged as “people who have chosen to retire without sufficient assets to support themselves.”
  • Kelly was appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2016 by Governor Scott Walker, but lost his 2020 election for a full term on the court. When he left the court in August 2020, Kelly was paid almost $120,000 by the Wisconsin Republican Party to work on election issues, including the plan to have fake GOP electors cast ballots for Trump even though Biden won the state. The National Republican Committee paid Kelly and his firm $110,000 in 2022 for “legal and compliance services.”
  • In 2017, then Justice Kelly voted against reforming lax recusal rules for judges.
  • Last September Kelly appeared with Michael Gableman, another conservative former Wisconsin State Supreme Court Justice, at a Republican Party event in Outagamie County where Gableman told the group that a revolution against government officials over the 2020 election has become necessary. This is after Gableman–who was hired by Republican Speaker Robin Vos to conduct a review of the 2020 Presidential election results–found no evidence to call the election results into question and after Speaker Vos fired Gableman, calling Gableman’s review “an embarrassment to the state.”
  • Kelly has attended state forums challenging the 2020 election results.
  • Kelly stated he has no intention to revisit the extremely gerrymandered maps adopted by Republican legislators.

This is only a partial list of how extremist Dan Kelly has shown he does not deserve your vote for Wisconsin State Supreme Court. Elect Janet Protasiewicz on April 4.

Jeanne Larson

Phillips, Wisconsin

Sources:

  • Chicago Tribune, February 22, 2023; Reid J. Epstein
  • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 19, 2022; Molly Beck
  • Wisconsin Watch, March 2, 2023; Tom Kertscher
  • Associated Press, February 20, 2023; Scott Bauer
  • Wisconsin Examiner, March 2, 2023; Bill Lueders