In Wisconsin's nationally watched Supreme Court race, candidate Janet Protasiewicz agrees to 1 televised debate, skips other public forums

MADISON – Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz agreed Monday to one televised debate and has turned down other public forums that voters have used to hear from candidates for the state's highest court — including a debate that has been televised statewide in every Supreme Court race for nearly 30 years.

Protasiewicz is competing in the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history, one that holds enormous implications for Wisconsin, including setting new policies related to abortion access, voting rules and the state's legislative and congressional maps.

But she has so far agreed to one major public forum with opponent former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly and declined to answer questions about her candidacy at events organized by the nonpartisan Milwaukee Press Club, WisPolitics.com and Rotary Club of Milwaukee, WISN-TV, the Wisconsin chapters of the liberal-leaning American Constitution Society and the Wisconsin Justice Initiative, and the Milwaukee chapter of the conservative-leaning Federalist Society — resulting in at least two of the organizations to cancel their events.

Protasiewicz will appear with Kelly on March 21 for a debate in Madison hosted by the State Bar of Wisconsin, WISC-TV, and Wispolitics.com. She and Kelly also are scheduled to meet with the editorial boards of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal.

"The State Bar of Wisconsin has a long history of conducting debates in this race and we know this will be one great way for voters to hear from the candidates," Sam Roecker, spokesman for Protasiewicz, said in a statement.

"Judge Janet Protasiewicz has spent the past year traveling across Wisconsin and speaking directly with voters about what’s at stake in this race and why she is the best candidate to return fairness and impartiality to the court," he said.

Roecker also said Protasiewicz has also agreed to participate in a forum hosted by All Voting is Local, Campus Vote Project, and VoteRiders, a March 28 event Kelly is not scheduled as of Monday to attend. Protasiewicz and Kelly also both appeared at a public forum hosted by Wispolitics.com in January during the primary election.

Hosts of major primetime televised Supreme Court debates, Marquette University Law School's Lubar Center and PBS Wisconsin, have not yet announced whether the organizations will host candidate events this year. A spokesman for Marquette said he was unsure at this point of whether a program would take place before election day.

Frederica Freyberg, the executive producer of news for PBS Wisconsin, said Monday both candidates have been invited for a Supreme Court debate on March 24. So far, just Kelly has accepted. PBS Wisconsin has hosted Supreme Court debates since at least 1995.

Freyburg said PBS Wisconsin is still deciding whether to hold a primetime event with just one candidate.

Kelly has agreed to appear at multiple events

Kelly, a former Supreme Court justice, has agreed to appear at more than 10 events as he competes against Protasiewicz, according to his campaign.

More:Bice: Dan Kelly once said legal abortion promotes 'sexual libertinism' and government assistance is 'stealing'

“It is outrageous that Politician Protasiewicz has promised to put her thumb on the scales of justice and rule based on her ‘values’ instead of the law, but now won’t even explain her soft-on-crime record and ties to extremist activists,” Ben Voelkel, a spokesman for Kelly, said in a statement.

Roecker said "over the next four weeks, voters will have every opportunity to hear from Judge Protasiewicz through events, media appearances, and forums."

"While Dan Kelly apparently would like even more opportunities to stand next to Janet while he lectures Wisconsinites about his extreme views, she has an aggressive schedule and will continue meeting voters across Wisconsin," he said.

Justice Janine Geske, who was appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by former Gov. Tommy Thompson and served from 1993 to 1998, said campaigns have to make strategic decisions when deciding where to appear.

"I know that there is a major upcoming debate through the State Bar of Wisconsin that will be televised," Geske said. "She has been out in the public campaigning for a long time. I assume they are just deciding what is the wisest use of the time she has before the election."

Past candidates for the state Supreme Court have appeared at events hosted by the affected groups, including in 2018 when the Federalist Society of Milwaukee hosted Justice Rebecca Dallet, Madison attorney Tim Burns and Sauk County Judge Michael Screnock.

Marquette University and WISN-TV hosted a televised debate with Justice Brian Hagedorn and Appeals Judge Lisa Neubauer ahead of the 2019 election. That fall, the American Constitution Society hosted Justice Jill Karofsky, then-Justice Kelly and Marquette University law professor Ed Fallone ahead of the 2020 race.

On Monday, WISN-TV announced the station would not be hosting both candidates in a debate after Protasiewicz had declined to participate.

The Milwaukee Press Club, WisPolitics.com and Rotary Club of Milwaukee are moving forward with an event on March 14 with only Kelly in attendance. A spokesman for Protasiewicz told event organizers the campaign couldn't make it work in the judge's schedule.

In 2019, Hagedorn appeared at a Press Club newsmaker event while campaigning. Neubauer turned down the Press Club's invitation.

Wisconsin voters also saw fewer opportunities to hear from statewide candidates in public forums and debates during the 2022 midterms, too.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican challenger Tim Michels agreed to a single debate during the general election. In the U.S. Senate race, incumbent Ron Johnson and Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes agreed to just two.

More candidates are avoiding once-traditional public forums

Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Elections Research Center, said the growing tendency of candidates nationwide to avoid debates and forums that had been standard practice in prior years is in part due to a "fear of doing something that could become a tool used against them in a campaign ad or by sharing on social media."

"Candidates are opting for messaging they fully control such as press releases and social media posts over unscripted activities that put them in more risk," Burden said.

Burden said in most states, more Republican candidates avoid debates than do Democratic candidates, especially in the era of former President Donald Trump as Republicans "become leerier of traditional media and tend to grant access to outlets such as talk radio they know will treat them more favorably."

"Wisconsin is showing a different pattern from other states in that Democratic candidates rather than Republicans have become more reticent about doing debates," Burden said. "That might have hurt Mandela Barnes in last year's senatorial election when a larger number of debates could have helped combat the flood of advertising criticizing him."

Burden said Protasiewicz's calculation could be that she believes she is the "leading candidate" heading into the April 4 election and debates and other events with uncontrolled questions could be "more likely to complicate her path to victory than provide a boost." Protasiewicz finished first in the four-way Feb. 21 primary, picking up 46% of the vote to Kelly's 24%.

"The absence of debates does a real disservice to voters. This is especially true in a nonpartisan spring election where the campaigns are shorter and the candidates are not as well known," Burden said. "A large number of voters will learn about the candidates mostly through TV and Internet ads. That is problematic because ads can distort the truth and often do not deal with issues that are actually most important to the public and the office being sought."

Molly Beck and Corrinne Hess can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com and chess@gannett.com.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Protasiewicz agrees to 1 Supreme Court debate, skips other forums