04.05.11: First one down in WI?

Even before the first anti-worker state Senator is recalled in Wisconsin, voters will have a chance to get rid of a Koch whore Scott Walker ally.

April 5 is the date for Wisconsin's state Supreme Court election. One justice, Republican David Prosser, is being challenged by assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg. A Kloppenberg victory would shift the balance of power on the seven-member court from a narrow conservative majority to a narrow liberal majority. Reports the Wisconsin State Journal,

The race is officially nonpartisan, but defeating an incumbent justice who tends to side with the court's 4-3 conservative majority would send a "shock wave" through the Republican Party, said Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association. Palmer noted in an email to The Associated Press the WPPA hasn't endorsed a candidate yet, but said the labor debate will play a huge role in the election.

"Over the last month, (Kloppenburg's) campaign seems to have risen from relative obscurity, and it's now really going to be a race to watch."

And now we learn that Prosser last year called the chief justice a "bitch" and threatened to destroy her. (We tend to learn these kinds of things during political campaigns.) According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel,

As the deeply divided state Supreme Court wrestled over whether to force one member off criminal cases last year, Justice David Prosser exploded at Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson behind closed doors, calling her a "bitch" and threatening to "destroy" her.

The television ad above was sponsored by the progressive Greater Wisconsin Committee. Reports Talking Points Memo,

The political battlefield in Wisconsin has expanded beyond the recall efforts targeting legislators and, potentially, Gov. Scott Walker (R). A progressive issue advocacy group, the Greater Wisconsin Committee, is running a new ad about the nominally non-partisan state Supreme Court race this April, tying incumbent Justice David Prosser to Walker's conservative brand.

"Can we trust David Prosser to be impartial?" the announcer says. "In the legislature, Prosser and Walker voted the same way 95 percent of the time -- both voting against the middle class."