Supreme Court candidate Tim Burns today knocked primary opponent Rebecca Dallet for a campaign ad that opens with an attack on President Trump, saying it shows she’ll say anything to get elected.
During a debate before the Milwaukee Bar Association, the Middleton attorney said Dallet, a Milwaukee County judge, talked about not politicizing the judiciary when she began her campaign, and this summer said the candidates shouldn’t mention Gov. Scott Walker or Trump.
“But when polling showed she had no path to success, suddenly the first campaign ad we get shows Donald Trump in its first frame with an attack on Donald Trump,” Burns said. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind attacks on Donald Trump. What I don’t like are candidates who will say anything to be elected.”
Dallet responded that her message hasn’t changed.
“I have had the same message throughput my entire campaign from day one,” Dallet said. “From day one, I’ve understood that judges can and should talk about our values. And I have been talking about my values from my very announcement speech of my campaign.”
She said she understands candidates can’t take positions on cases that will come before the court, which she said Burns has done throughout the campaign.
Burns interjected asking, “What position?” He was rebuked by Dallet, who said, “This is my time, Mr. Burns.”
Sauk County Judge Michael Screnock, the conservative candidate in the race, largely stayed out of the fray, despite a few shots lobbed at him from Burns and Dallet.
Burns described Screnock, who helped defend Act 10 while he was an attorney at Michael Best & Friedrich, as a “cog in Scott Walker’s efforts to do the Koch brothers’ bidding.” Dallet said she believes Screnock’s position is that the judiciary should be as a “rubber-stamp of the Legislature.”
Screnock said Burns and Dallet are campaigning on political issues, which he said he finds “deeply troubling.”
Screnock also said he was surprised that one of the primary attacks in the campaign against him “is that I was an excellent attorney.”
But he said he is now a judge, a role different than that of an advocate.
“As a judge, my fidelity is to the law and to the law alone,” Scroneck said, adding that “the role of a judge is to set aside whatever personal beliefs you have about an issue and decide the case only on the law and on the facts.”
