Wisconsin Department of Justice lawyers requested Monday the state Supreme Court ignore an appeal from gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis., who is fighting to keep nearly $468,000 in campaign donations.
Meeting a noon deadline set by the court, DOJ attorneys representing the State Elections Board filed a legal brief accusing Green's campaign of "forum shopping" and falsely contending its rights are violated by being restricted from using $467,844 in donations.
The donations were given by political action committees not registered in Wisconsin as part of $1.3 million Green transferred from his federal campaign account to his gubernatorial campaign account.
Green directly petitioned the state's highest court last week after repealing a previous lawsuit he lost in Dane County Circuit Court. In his suit, Green seeks to overturn an Aug. 30 SEB order requiring him to rid his campaign of the donations.
Since the Dane County ruling against Green, his campaign has placed the disputed donations in a separate account, pending appeal.
But according to the DOJ attorneys in their legal brief, Green's campaign is trying to delay both the enforcement of the SEB order and the circuit court decision.
"[Green's campaign] received the remedy from the circuit court that they asked for — a quick resolution of their motion," the DOJ attorneys said. "What they did not get was the result they expected."
Green's campaign lawyer Don Millis said he bypassed the appeals court to potentially receive a final decision before the Nov. 7 general election, in which Green faces Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.
Yet the Supreme Court has directly taken election-related cases only when the cases were to keep someone's name off a ballot, the DOJ attorneys said, which the SEB order does not.
Anne Lupardus, deputy press secretary for Doyle's campaign, echoed the DOJ's argument about "forum shopping" to get a result the Green campaign wants to hear.
"Congressman Green doesn't need a Supreme Court ruling to know that he has broken the law," Lupardus said. "What he should do is step up and divest his campaign of the money, just as the Dane County Circuit judge, the Wisconsin Department of Justice, the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and the State Elections Board have ordered him to do."
Following review of both Green's arguments and the DOJ's arguments, four of the seven Supreme Court justices must agree to take the case before a decision can be made.
As part of its review, the court also requested the DOJ attorneys answer 10 questions about the procedures and history of the case.
And though the court wanted to review the DOJ's position on the case before deciding whether to hear it, Millis said it remains uncertain when the court will render a decision.
"Perhaps we will know Friday, but it's hard to guess what the court's schedule is like," Millis said.
Millis added he has until noon Wednesday to file a legal brief to the Supreme Court on behalf of Green's campaign.
