Gov. Scott Walker jump started state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley’s career with three appointments in four years, but even more so, he helped her to win the April 5 state Supreme Court election.
Walker’s signature political move, Act 10, essentially handed the election to Bradley.
Act 10, which stripped many unions of their rights in Wisconsin, has had an adversarial effect on labor unions. Membership has plummeted. When Act 10 was passed union membership was 13.3 percent of the workforce. As of 2015, it’s 8.3 percent. Tax records for the state union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, show their revenue dropped from nearly $5 million in 2010 to $1.5 million based on the most recent tax data.
Why does this matter? The challenger to Bradley was Appeals Court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg, who happened to be labor-backed. Unions didn’t have the money to lobby votes for Kloppenburg in this high-profile, statewide election.
Given that unions have less money to lobby the Wisconsin Legislature with and sponsor candidates — all of which directly affect the unions — they didn’t have the funds to finance a Kloppenburg campaign. Some spending had to get cut, and those cuts came to spending for the state Supreme Court election.
Act 10 has forced unions to rethink campaign spending altogether. Rather than trying to win a heavily politicized, state-wide campaign, unions have rebranded themselves to influence lower profile local elections. Wisconsin AFL-CIO president Phil Neuenfeldt said to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that local campaigns could eventually help in state races since candidates, voter lists and volunteers would be readily available.
Labor, when mobilized, can be a destructive force. Labor fought for a 40 hour work week. Labor fought for workers’ compensation. Labor sparked Walker’s recall election. Choking the funding from labor is a good way to keep anti-union candidates in office, and that’s how Bradley won a full term on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court.
Aaron Reilly ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in comparative literature and Russian.
