Sup. Ct. candidate Rebecca Bradley shows she's willing to kowtow to special interests

Bradley, who doesn't have a WI hunting license, appears in flier as a hunter

It was dumb when John Kerry did it. And it’s dumb now that Rebecca Bradley is doing it.

But the current conservative state Supreme Court justice, who is gearing up for what will become a very contentious election campaign against challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg, is trying to send a message to gun voters in the state: that you can count on her to be a rubber stamp for the NRA while she’s adjudicating.

Bradley’s latest campaign flyer includes her wearing blaze orange hunting gear, holding a rifle, and sporting an NRA cap. It is a clear indication that she will back up the gun lobby in her rulings.

Not that it was ever in doubt that she would. Bradley, a former member of the NRA and a concealed carry holder in Wisconsin, likely didn’t need to create this kind of photo op to show off her pro-gun credentials, despite not currently holding a DNR hunting license.

Still, it’s a bit bewildering why the sitting justice would make her opinions so blatantly obvious. It’s nice to know where her allegiances lie, of course, but broadcasting it so loudly (in her campaign flyer, no less) makes it clear that she cannot be an impartial justice when it comes to issues of guns. One has to wonder whether she can be impartial on other issues as well.

Perhaps, in this day and age where it’s normal to see corporations and super PACs buying our elections, we shouldn’t be too surprised by this turn of events. But it doesn’t mean we have to be comfortable with it. After all, we are witnessing a candidate for the state Supreme Court openly try to woo special interest groups to her campaign. That sort of behavior should be shunned, and Wisconsinites should rightly reject it.

We do have a choice, after all -- and Wisconsin voters ought to instead stand behind the candidate that is demonstrating independence and sound judgment when it comes to impartiality on the bench.

That choice is clearly JoAnne Kloppenburg, who brings a quarter of a century of experience working in the Wisconsin justice system under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Rebecca Bradley, on the other hand, has been appointed to judgeships three times by Walker in the past three years, and is the wrong pick in my view for our state’s highest court.

On April 5, be sure to support the candidate who will have your interests, not the NRA’s, in mind. Reject Rebecca Bradley, and vote for JoAnne Kloppenburg.