esenberg WILL
<div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">will 3x nodes</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">? Wisconsin: A trio of rulings from three separate Wisconsin courts on Monday and Tuesday has resulted, for now, in a halt to a conservative group’s effort to require the state to remove 209,000 voter registrations from the rolls.</font></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Monday, a lower court judge, who had previously ordered the purge to go forward, held Democratic election officials in contempt for not proceeding with the removal. These officials, who’d asked the judge, Daniel Malloy, to issue a stay while they appeal, pointed out that Malloy’s order had not specified a deadline by which they were obligated to act.</font></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Later that same day, the state Supreme Court declined to expedite an appeal requested by the plaintiff, a conservative organization called the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. <b>WILL had hoped that the Supreme Court, which is dominated by right-wing jurists, would give it a friendly reception, one but conservative justice who’s up for re-election this year recused himself and another sided with the court’s two liberals in declining to fast-track the case. That resulted in a 3-3 tie, meaning the plaintiff’s request was rejected.</b></font></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Finally, on Tuesday, the state’s intermediate Court of Appeals stayed Malloy’s decisions: both his order directing the purge to proceed and his contempt ruling. That amounted to a victory for voting rights advocates, who, if they cannot halt the purge, at least want to delay it until after November’s elections.</font></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The win is only temporary, though: The state Supreme Court’s refusal to expedite the case does not guarantee that the court will stop the purge if the case eventually reaches them. A separate federal lawsuit opposing the purge remains ongoing.</font></div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<div>WI IS A SWING STATE 2016 RECALL QUASHED?
</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; clear: both;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Koch Network and Christian Right Celebrate Apparent Hagedorn Victory in Wisconsin Supreme Court Race</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; clear: both;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://default.salsalabs.org/Td5d03276-682e-4a43-86ad-31408f749824/ac94ac0d-31ce-11e7-960b-0a8abee05f34" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">David Armiak</a> — Right-wing Judge Brian Hagedorn leads Judge Lisa Neubauer by less than half a percent.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; clear: both;"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://default.salsalabs.org/T0f93aa8a-6ba6-4db8-983e-967a90046046/ac94ac0d-31ce-11e7-960b-0a8abee05f34" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Read more >></font></a></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; clear: both;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4/19</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Koch brothers’ astroturf operation, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Americans for Prosperity</a> (AFP), and Wisconsin Family Action (WFA) are exuberant over <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Brian_Hagedorn" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Brian Hagedorn</a>‘s apparent razor-thin victory over Lisa Neubauer on Tuesday for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.</b></font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hagedorn is winning by less than 6,000 votes, or less than a half a percent, the Associated Press is <a href="https://elections.ap.org/wpr/election_results/2019-04-02/state/WI/race/G/raceid/50888" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">reporting</a>. If the margin holds, Wisconsin law allows for a recount, but Neubauer would have to foot the bill.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hagedorn has declared victory in the race, but Neubauer has not conceded and is considering a recount. The eventual winner will replace longtime Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson who announced her retirement last year.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">If the Kochs’ Hagedorn is elected, the Wisconsin Supreme Court will move one seat further to the right with a 5-2 majority.</b></font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</b></font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kochs, Christian Right Rejoice</font></h2><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hagedorn’s biggest supporter in terms of money was the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Republican_State_Leadership_Committee" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Republican State Leadership Committee</a> (RSLC), which took out <a href="https://rslc.gop/news/2019/04/03/conservative-judge-brian-hagedorn-wins-election-to-wisconsin-supreme-court/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">$1.3 million</a> in TV and digital ads. The RSLC funnels millions in corporate money into state campaigns, and counts tobacco companies, the US Chamber of Commerce, the Judicial Crisis Network, pharmaceutical giants, and Koch Industries among its <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtedetail_contribs.php?ein=050532524&cycle=2018" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">top funders</a>.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But it was the Kochs and the <b>Christian Right group Wisconsin Family Action</b> who are credited with Hagedorn coming out on top. AFP spent over <a href="https://www.wisdc.org/news/press-releases/126-press-release-2019/6333-outside-spending-groups-make-homestretch-push-for-hagedorn" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">$200,000</a> on canvassing efforts and mailings. According to its State Director, Eric Bott, AFP talked to more than <a href="https://americansforprosperity.org/afp-statement-on-wisconsin-supreme-court-race/?utm_source=AFP+Social&utm_medium=TWITTER&linkId=65647771" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">750,000 voters</a> and sent out over 1.5 million targeted mailings in the seven weeks up to the election.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“There’s no question our engagement made a huge difference,” Bott <a href="https://americansforprosperity.org/afp-statement-on-wisconsin-supreme-court-race/?utm_source=AFP+Social&utm_medium=TWITTER&linkId=65647771" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">said</a>.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WFA spent more than $25,000 on mailings and brochures for Hagedorn as well. WFA thanked AFP for its efforts and extended “a hearty congratulations and thanks to Brian and his family for their hard work and steadfast commitment to staying the course despite the unjust attacks on their personal lives and their religious beliefs,” in a <a href="https://wifamilyaction.org/category/wisconsin-family-voice/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">press release</a> following the election.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One Wisconsin Now <a href="https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-candidate-helped-found-academy-that-bans-lgbt/article_99a6c71e-104c-5d28-a98d-afe5342843ad.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">revealed</a> that Hagedorn founded a school that prohibits anyone working there from being in a same-sex relationship and could expel students who identify as LGBTQ.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/daniel-bice/2019/01/31/wisconsin-supreme-court-candidate-once-tied-gay-rights-bestiality/2699726002/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</em></a> also exposed an old blog Hagedorn wrote from 2005 where he addressed his “fellow soldiers in the culture wars,” stating that “the idea that homosexual behavior is different than bestiality as a constitutional matter is unjustifiable.”</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following the revelations of his hateful stance towards the LGBT community, the Wisconsin Realtors Association revoked its endorsement of Hagedorn <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/21/realtors-revoke-endorsement-supreme-court-candidate-after-reports-he-founded-school-allowed-expulsio/2936284002/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">saying</a>, “The real estate related issues that served as the basis for our endorsement have been overshadowed by other, non-real estate related issues — issues with which we do not want to be associated and that directly conflict with the principles of our organization and the values of our members.”</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The U.S. Chamber of Commerce,</b> which often funnels money to right-wing candidates through the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, followed suit, <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/06/wisconsin-supreme-court-u-s-chamber-commerce-stays-away-race/3071945002/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">according</a> to the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Journal Sentinel</em>.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hagedorn and other influential right-wing leaders in the state, such as Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty’s Rick Esenberg, framed the anti-LGBT Hagedorn revelations as attacks on “<a href="https://twitter.com/RickEsenberg/status/1113295928440520705" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">religious tolerance</a>.” Esenberg, who donated to Hagedorn, regularly brings cases in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WFA riled its base to support Hagedorn, claiming he had been “viciously and unjustly attacked,” and warning of dire results if he lost the election and liberals won the next 2020 Supreme Court election. If that happens, there will be a “deluge of cases…against faith-based adoption agencies, cases against Christian florists and photographers,” <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WisconsinFamilyAction/videos/2131538823804033/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">said</a> WFA President Julaine Appling. “You could probably kiss aspects of voter ID, or concealed carry, or right-to-work, or portions of Act 10 goodbye.”</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two hours prior to polls closing, WFA <a href="https://twitter.com/WIFamilyAction/status/1113209761653231616" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">attempted to motivate</a> Twitter followers by adding that Neubauer was endorsed by “pro-abortion” Planned Parenthood and “pro-LGBT” Human Rights Council.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WFA has been active in pushing a Christian Right agenda in the state for years, as the Center for Media and Democracy<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> (CMD) reported last year in <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Conquering_the_courts_report-FINAL-WEB05-10-18.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Conquering the Courts: The Religious Right’s Fight to Rig the Rules and Undermine Judicial Independence</em>.</a> </span>WFA is an affiliate of the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Policy_Alliance" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">Family Policy Alliance</a>, a national network of 40 groups in 38 states that spends millions to influence state legislation and elect socially conservative candidates.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2006, WFA partnered with Family Research Institute of Wisconsin and Focus on the Family to spend heavily on a media campaign for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The amendment passed but was overturned in 2014 when the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals declared the marriage ban unconstitutional.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2008, WFA and Wisconsin Right to Life worked together to unseat Louis Butler on the Supreme Court, which resulted in the election of Michael Gableman.</font></p><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WFA also played a big role in former Governor Scott Walker’s dark money operation in 2011 and 2012, channeling $1.2 million in cash from Wisconsin Club for Growth and Citizens for a Strong America into recall elections.</font></p></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div>