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In Wisconsin, voters on April 5, 2011 will choose a state Supreme Court Justice and a new Milwaukee County executive.
In Wisconsin, the 2011 spring elections have attracted heightened interest as the fallout from the Madison budget battle continues.
PolitiFact Wisconsin has been in high gear, too.
We’ve checked a variety of statements by the candidates in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race as well as in the special election to fill Gov. Scott Walker’s shoes as Milwaukee County executive. The election is Tuesday, April 5, 2011.
Here are the highlights from our recent fact checks in those two races.
Supreme Court
The high court race between incumbent Justice David Prosser and assistant state attorney general JoAnne Kloppenburg has produced questionable claims by both candidates and third-party groups.
On statements aimed at Kloppenburg, we gave Prosser a Pants on Fire for saying Kloppenburg’s practice is limited to dock regulation and a conservative group a Pants on Fire for saying she jailed an elderly farmer for not planting native plants.
On statements aimed at Prosser, we gave a liberal group a Half True for saying Prosser was equal to Gov. Scott Walker and a Barely True for alleging that Prosser did not charge a longtime pedophile priest and then participated in a cover-up.
And we gave Kloppenburg a Barely True for saying Prosser had prejudged matters likely to come before the Supreme Court. We then gave a Pants on Fire to Kloppenburg for saying we scored that prejudging claim as True.
Milwaukee County executive
In the non-partisan contest between state Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) and philanthropist Chris Abele, we rated Mostly True an Abele claim that Jeff Stone = Scott Walker.
We gave Stone a Half Flip for inconsistent statements on his position on Walker’s move to curb collective bargaining by public employee unions.
Abele’s aim was Mostly True, we found, when he said that Milwaukee County Parks Director Sue Black had not received a raise in five years despite her revenue-producing efforts.
Finally, we found Mostly True the claim by Stone that Abele had dropped out of three separate colleges and had not earned a degree.
There were additional statements from both evaluated before the primary. You can find all of the primary statements here.
Our Sources
Various PolitiFact Wisconsin rulings
