LA CROSSE (WKBT) -- The more conservative candidate for Wisconsin's Supreme Court seat said Monday the divide between him and his opponent comes down to "constitutionalism versus activism."
Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly stopped by News 8 before Monday's annual La Crosse Chamber of Commerce dinner.
He said in the four years he served on the court, he applied the law as written and was faithful to the constitution, and that's what will win the election on April 4.
The February primary results saw Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz win most Coulee Region counties except for Monroe County.
Kelly says his supporters recognize that a vote for him is a vote for justice.
"They understand that justice comes by following the law in the courts and not by making up the law as you go along. My opponent has made it quite clear that if she's elected, she intends to place herself above the law. She's even go as far as to say she will place her thumb on the scales of justice to make sure she resolves cases according to her personal values. Well, that's the death of justice," Kelly said.
Kelly also discussed a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report about his involvement in the plan to send fake Wisconsin electors to the capitol, saying the article is "wholly false."
The Journal Sentinel story published in February says Kelly was hired by the state Republican Party as legal counsel and "was at the center of the discussion in December 2020" to send alternate electors trying to certify that Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, won Wisconsin.
Kelly said the report misconstrued his involvement in that plan.
"I was retained--the RPW was one of my clients, and the chairman of the party called me and asked me about this subject and asked if I was in the loop on it. I told him I wasn't. We had about a half-hour conversation and that was it. So somehow or other, the author of that article managed to misconstrue that into saying I was at the center of this, which is just farcical," said Kelly.Â
One of those electors, Andrew Hitt, said in a deposition to the January 6 Committee that he and Kelly had "extensive conversations" about the fake elector plan. When asked if Hitt had misconstrued the amount of his conversations with Kelly, Kelly said Hitt by "extensive conversations" was referring only to the roughly half-hour conversation.Â
In the meantime, Kelly and Protasiewicz have agreed to a debate on Tuesday, March 21 at the State Bar Center in Madison. The debate will be streamed live on channel3000.com, and WKBT will broadcast the debate that day at 4 p.m.
This article contains at the top of the page a supplementary video featuring some of Kelly's responses to additional questions asked, including what more work Kelly has to do to convince western Wisconsinites to vote for him, the rationale he would use in potentially recusing himself from certain cases, and how on March 21 he'll go about proving he is the superior candidate to Protasiewicz.
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