February
2007
Does the Ziegler primary lead mean Wisconsin will be Pedophile-Friendly?
Washington County Judge Annette Ziegler came through the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court primary with flying colors — in fact first in a field of three candidates. But what does this say about Ziegler?
Of the two autocalls I received from a group calling itself the Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce, Ziegler was touted as business friendly. What voters should really look at in April is which candidate is more family friendly.
The problem with Ziegler is her weak sentencing of pedophiles. As the website OneWisconsinNow points out, Ziegler gave a man who molested his 12 year old step-daughter a mere one year sentence. If that is the sort of precedent that Ziegler would follow as a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, Wisconsin may find it’s tough laws on pedophiles being struck down.
Is that what we really want for our state?
One thing is certain — overcoming the numbers that Ziegler came through with in the primary is very difficult if voter turnout remains at the pitiful 7% that it was for Tuesday’s election, but her opponent, Linda Clifford still has a narrow chance. There’s really only one way she can pull this one out and that’s if she exposes Ziegler’s record. It’s going to be costly but the real question that voters need to answer is whether they prefer to have the reputation as being a family friendly state?
Jim McGuigan
Jim McGuigan, Watchdogging Campaigns, Watchdogging the Judiciary
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With so many legitimate reasons to bash Ziegler, why resort to this cheap shit? It didn’t work for Falk.
You don’t think it matters if we’ve got a Justice on our Supreme Court that is easy on pedophiles?
You’re kidding right?
Do tell on the other stuff.
1) While a year sounds pretty lenient, it’s not exactly a walk.
2) There’s NO logical connect between a relatively lenient sentence, and your suggestion she’d strike the statutes.
3) The Supreme Court does not impose sentences. That’s done at the trial level.
4. Let’s dig for real stuff in Ziegler’s record, and not cry wolf.
Is Ziegler responsible for defunding GPS tracking?
I thought Doyle did that.
What evidence exists that pedophiles choose where to live based on the sentencing habits of Judges? Claiming that a one year sentenance will cause pedophiles to flock to Wisconsin is nearly as histrionic as when J. B. Van Hollen while running for the Attorney General’s office tried to scare voters with his lies about terrorist training bases operating in Wisconsin. Shame on you for advocating the politics of fear.
I voted for Linda Clifford yesterday because she is a top notch attorney who has shown that she will be independent of special interest groups. Meanwhile the Club of Growth is bringing their hyperpartisan divisive politics and huge financial resources to Wisconsin and that is what needs to be challenged. Is Wisconsin Justice for sale to outside ideological interest groups or not?
If Clifford actually used your NAMBLA smear tactics I would find some other Progressive to write in because we cannot afford McCarthyites on the bench and to smear Ziegler with your NAMBLA campaign “connection” would be a lie. Conservatives use this very tactic against Progressives who support the ACLU because the ACLU defended NAMBLA once when the federal government was over zealous in the tactics it used in a case. In fact GOP Congressman John Doolittle of California made a ACLU-NAMBLA link claim against his Democratic opponent Charles BROWN during the last two weeks of the 2006 campaign.
You don’t have to act like a Republican to defeat a Republican.
Progressively Yours,
james wall
James, It is fair to bring up her sentencing records but I will give some thought to your other comments.
What is the “Club of Growth”?
When you apply for a job, companies now look into almost everything concerning the applicant. Both Ziegler and Clifford are applying for a very important job and the voters are the interviewers.
As a voter, I do not want to only hear what they want to tell me, more importantly, I want to hear what they are hiding from me. Should we wait until their on the bench to finally hear about the skeletons in their closets?
The quality of the person wanting to be a Supreme Court Justice is very important. We do not want people making decisions concerning all of us when they have made bad decisions in the past.
So if we look at the sex case where she sent someone away for 80 years she is too tough on sex offenders. Jim, we do not know the details of the case so to make a blanket statement is irresponsible. I am a liberal and a Clifford supporter and I am very unhappy about what our side is doing in this race. This is not a campaign for the Legislature or Congress, this is a campaign for a judgeship and there are different rules and different standards. It just makes me sick.
I’m not sure what rules and standards the last writer is refering to. The US Supreme Court confirmations are much more grueling than this.
Did you happen to notice that the Ziegler campaign has hired the same PR firm that the Swift boat people used to expose John Kerry. They also have Growth Wisconsin running ads for her.
The terms appear to be that Ziegler supporters are ruthless people that will do or spend anything they can to get what they want. In the mean time people do not have a clue if she is an honorable person or not. We have elections because our forefathers wanted us to weed out the good from the bad.