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Mark Radcliffe of Black River Falls faces Republican Dan Hellman of Onalaska for an open Assembly seat in today’s election. His campaign asked Jackson County Circuit Judge Thomas Lister on Friday to ban the ad by the Coalition for America’s Families, calling it false and defamatory.
Lister issued a temporary restraining order against the ad on Saturday, barring it from the air waves. He refused to lift the order during a hearing on Sunday morning, but set another hearing for Monday. The Coalition for America’s Families asked the 4th District Court of Appeals Monday morning to erase the order.
Minutes before Monday’s proceeding, the appeals court decided to stay the restraining order. That means the order still exists but is unenforceable. The court said there’s no basis to prohibit the group’s free speech before the merits of the case are decided.
“This is a victory for the First Amendment, our right of free speech, and due process of the law,” Coalition spokesman R.J. Johnson said in a statement. He did not immediately return messages Monday seeking comment on whether the group would rerun the ads.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin ripped Lister, saying his restraining order was impermissible.
“Judges should not be in the business of deciding which political speech is acceptable for public consumption and which is not,” ACLU of Wisconsin Executive Director Chris Ahmuty said in a statement.
Radcliffe conceded he can’t do anything more about the ad before the election. He said he’d decide after the race whether to pursue the matter. Perhaps he can spare future politicians from dealing with lies, he said.
“If we decide to go that way, it would be to continue to bring the public’s attention to the garbage that goes on in politics,” Radcliffe said.
Politicians have long complained about third-party groups like the Coalition for America’s Families because they don’t have to disclose their funding. The state Government Accountability Board is set to consider rules that would require full disclosure of who’s paying for ads that clearly advocate for or against a candidate at its Nov. 11 meeting.
The Coalition has been running ads similar to the Radcliffe spot against Democratic Assembly candidates around the state. The ads take them to task for supporting state Senate Democrats’ failed universal health care plan, which the ads equate to government-run health care for illegal aliens.
Democrats have been pushing back against the ads for weeks, branding them lies. Johnson has argued the ads are accurate.
The health care program didn’t have any citizenship requirements. And Johnson maintains Radcliffe told Wisconsin Public Radio in August that Radcliffe thought the program was a good start toward affordable health care and legislators should work to pass it.
Radcliffe said Monday he meant the health care program was a good place to start discussing health care changes, but he never supported it.
Hellman said he didn’t know the legal details, but Radcliffe’s actions show he’s running from his own statements.
Coalition for America’s Families attorney Robert Dreps said Lister recused himself from the case after the appeals court ruling came down, saying he didn’t want to appear biased in any future rulings since he’d already issued the restraining order. Lister didn’t immediately return a message left Monday at his chambers.
