Printable Version

Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Friday, March 23, 2007

Ziegler says she’ll put stock in blind trust

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Three days after the filing of a complaint alleging a possible conflict of interest, state Supreme Court candidate Annette Ziegler announced Thursday that she will put all of her stock holdings into a blind trust.

Such an action will result in her not knowing where her money is invested and remove any questions about her ability to be impartial, said Ziegler’s spokesman Mark Graul.

“She is offering voters an extra level of insurance or impartiality, which is a step that other elected officials have taken in the past,” Graul said.

The move won praise from the filer of the complaint pending before the Wisconsin Judicial Commission.

“I think she’s doing the right thing,” said Wisconsin Democracy Campaign director Mike McCabe. “I think more judges ought to think seriously about doing it.”

McCabe on Monday asked for the investigation into whether Ziegler, a Washington County circuit court judge for 10 years, violated rules of judicial conduct by handling cases in which she or her husband had financial or business ties with one of the parties.

Ziegler faces Madison attorney Linda Clifford in the April 3 election for a 10-year term on the high court.

Clifford spokeswoman Nicholl Caruso said Clifford will follow the advice of the commission about what to do with her investments should she win. Clifford has already said she intends to put all of her investments in mutual funds if she wins.

Caruso said the question for Ziegler isn’t what she will do in the future, but whether she violated the judicial system’s code of conduct by not removing herself from the cases cited in the complaint.

The move by Ziegler came on the same day that former Democratic Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and four Democratic state lawmakers said large pharmaceutical companies are attempting to buy the election by funneling untraceable money to groups that are backing Ziegler.

When told that Ziegler plans to put the money in a blind trust, Lautenschlager said that was a good way to have separation from your investments. But Ziegler would still know that when the trust was established it started with a large amount of money from pharmaceutical companies.

Lautenschlager stood by her concerns that those companies were funneling untraceable money to Club for Growth Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, which are backing Ziegler in the race.

Lautenschlager cited a reported by the government watchdog group the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign that found WMC and the Wisconsin Club for Growth combined have spent at least $650,000 on the race.

Lautenschlager, who has entered private practice since her failed re-election bid last year, said she would bet her “house, husband, children and dog” that pharmaceutical companies have spent money on the Supreme Court race on ways that can’t be traced.

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce has not received any money from any pharmaceutical company, said the group’s spokesman Jim Pugh.

“Their charges are scurrilous, false and they are desperate,” Pugh said. “This is idle speculation on the part of these folks.”

A message left at the Club for Growth Wisconsin was not immediately returned.

Because funding sources for so-called issue ads don’t have to be disclosed, there will always be speculation about where the money comes from, McCabe said.

Lautenschlager and the four lawmakers at the news conference — Chuck Benedict of Beloit, Mike Sheridan of Janesville, Gary Sherman of Port Wing and Marlin Schneider of Wisconsin Rapids — are all supporting Clifford.

Lautenschlager is state chairwoman of the Democratic Judicial Campaign Committee, which is based in Washington, D.C.