Pro-Life Supreme Court Justice David Prosser appears to have won his bid for re-election over pro-abortion challenge Joanne Kloppenburg after an error corrected by an elections official restored thousands of votes to him.
Prosser, who came from behind Thursday after the Republican stronghold of Waukesha County announced a data-entry error had resulted in the omission of more than 7,000 votes for Prosser, is remaining cautious about declaring victory until the vote has been confirmed.
“I have not spoken to my opponent. It’s not at all anything personal,” said Prosser. “It’s simply I thought, I’m not conceding, and I’m not congratulating, and I’m not claiming victory. We’re simply waiting out the process.”
“And so, as far as I’m concerned, if these results hold up I will be the winner. My opponent has the right to call for a recount — and have the state pay for that recount, if it’s within a certain level. But if you get up over 7,000 votes, that’s serious business. That’s not likely to be overcome,” he told Fox News.
Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus confirmed reports she had made a mistake, saying she inadvertently failed to send votes from the entire city of Brookfield to the Associated Press for tabulation.
“This is not a case of extra votes or extra ballots being found,” Nickolaus said. “This is human error, which I apologize for.”
The political action committee associated with the Family Research Council’s lobbying group supported Prosser as did Wisconsin Right to Life.
Connie Mackey, chairwoman of the Faith Family Freedom Fund, which is the FRC-related PAC running the ads, told LifeNews.com that Kloppenburg’s supporters ” want to use the Wisconsin Supreme Court to advance their liberal agenda and also recall any elected official who stands in their way.”
“Faith Family Freedom Fund will advocate for these duly elected officials and work to protect the courts from judicial activism,” she said.
In January, Wisconsin Right to Life said voters should re-elect David Prosser to his current position on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. With high court races not usually occupying the attention of voters, having the support of the pro-life community could make the difference in the election.
“Our organization is proud to endorse Justice David Prosser for re-election to our state’s highest court,” WRTL legislative director Susan Armacost told LifeNews.com. “Justice Prosser is a highly respected jurist whose judicial philosophy focuses on interpreting the Constitution, not making law. David Prosser has served the State Supreme Court with great distinction and richly deserves to be re-elected.”
Prosser has described himself as a judicial conservative and an impartial judge while the candidates seeking to replace him have not sided themselves with those who favor the rule of law as opposed to legislative from the bench — the key problem in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade that allowed virtually unlimited abortions and 53 million abortions since 1973.
Prosser has also touted his time as the former GOP Assembly speaker and said he is looking forward to preserving the common-sense majority on the current court — something that Kloppenburg has condemned. Prosser has a great deal of experience and has participated in more than 900 published Supreme Court decisions.
