Oops She Did it Again! Another Mistake By Justice Roggensack
Once again, State Supreme Court Justice Patience Roggensack reports an endorsement she did not have.
In January, theJournal Sentinel reported that Roggensack touted the re-election endorsement of someone who had not actually endorsed her.
On the endorsement page of her campaign site, Roggensack had listed the name and photo of Joseph Kearney, the dean of the Marquette Law School.
Trouble was, Kearney had never endorsed her.
Indeed, when questioned about the issue, Kearney said he does not make political endorsements.
And then yesterday, the Journal Sentinel informed us that Roggensack wrongly listed a reserve judge as one of her endorsers despite being told that he would not support her!
Robert E. Kinney, a reserve judge who spent more than 30 years as an Oneida County Circuit Court judge, said Roggensack asked him to endorse her in November, but he declined.
On Thursday, Kinney discovered he was listed as a backer on her website. He sent her an email requesting his name be removed.
“Near the end of our conversation, I told you that I disagreed with your position in virtually every 4-3 decision rendered by our court, and, for that reason, the best you could hope for fro me was that I wouldn’t endorse anyone. Surely, you must remember that,” Kinney wrote in his email.
“I don’t know how this mistake was made, and I certainly hope that it does not call into question the accuracy of the rest of your list,” he added, saying he thought candidates in statewide races usually had endorsers sign statements of support to avoid mistakes.
Roggensack faces Marquette University law professor and practicing attorney Ed Fallone in the April 2 election.
Easy to see why it would have been cool to get an endorsement from the dean of the Marquette Law School.
But Roggensack was wrong to tout endorsements that she hadn't actually received.
