Schimel says he's unsure if he'll attend Elon Musk visit to Wisconsin Sunday
BEAVER DAM, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The Republican-backed candidate in a hotly contested race for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court told reporters Friday he was unsure whether he will attend an event Elon Musk has scheduled for Sunday night in Green Bay.
After a rally in Beaver Dam, Schimel said he had few details about Musk's planned visit. Around the time Schimel's Beaver Dam event ended, Musk's political action committee, the America PAC, posted on Musk's social media platform, X, Musk plans to hold a town hall in Green Bay Sunday at 6:30 p.m.
"I don't know. We'd have to talk about that," Schimel said when asked about attending Musk's event. "I have no idea what he's doing. I have no idea what this rally is."
Musk posted late Thursday night he planned to visit Wisconsin and give $1 million checks to two people who attend and have voted in the Supreme Court contest, which has shattered records for campaign spending on a court race. The previous record was the 2023 race in Wisconsin when Democratic-backed Janet Protasiewicz beat Dan Kelly and gave liberals a 4-3 majority on the state's high court.
It's illegal in Wisconsin to pay people in exchange for a vote, and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit in Dane County Friday afternoon seeking an injunction barring Musk from paying any voters.
The case was originally assigned to Schimel's opponent, Susan Crawford, who's a Dane County Circuit Court judge. Crawford immediately recused, and the case has since been assigned to a judge in neighboring Columbia County. By then, Musk had the deleted the post and put up a new one that "clarified" his offer was for anyone who signed his petition against "activist judges."
Schimel declined to say whether he believed Musk's initial offer would've broken state law.
"I'm not his lawyer, and I, as a judge, I don't give free legal advice," he said. "So, I have no idea."
Schimel and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson told reporters the Democratic-backed Crawford was the reason this race now has national implications. They pointed to an appearance she made in January where Democratic donors stated the race provided a chance to put two U.S. House seats in play.
"They want to buy a couple House seats," Johnson said. "They want a super legislator on the court, to redistrict, to gerrymander."
Top House Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, told supporters this week a Crawford win could lead to a new congressional map in Wisconsin. With Republicans currently holding a slim House majority, Democratic gains in Wisconsin could be enough to give flip control after the 2026 midterm elections.
Republicans hold six of Wisconsin's eight House seats. Democrats maintain the current maps, which were drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, are unfair. Although Evers drew the maps in 2021, they say he was bound by guidance from a then-conservative Supreme Court majority to take a "least change" approach to the maps, which were drawn by Republicans in 2011.
Schimel noted most of Crawford's funding has come from outside of Wisconsin, including donations liberal megadonors George Soros and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have given Democrats, who then funneled the money to Crawford.
"She's the one that's for sale in this race," Schimel said. "The only thing I have on the line for voters of Wisconsin is restoring integrity, objectivity and humility to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. That's it. That's all I've promised to anybody."
Crawford's campaign has outspent Schimel's, however Musk's funding largely explains why independent spending in the race has favored Schimel. Musk has spent more than $20 million on this race compared to $2 million by Soros and $1.5 million by Pritzker, although Schimel has noted he has no control over how Musk's political groups spend their dollars.
Johnson said he didn't like the amount of spending in campaigns these days, but he rejected calls for publicly financed elections from liberals like Sen. Bernie Sanders. He said while it's not ideal, there are far bigger problems than election expenditures.
"I don't like how expensive these races have become," Johnson said. "But in terms of what's at stake and how much we're spending in comparison to other things. People have compared it to how much we spend on peanut butter a year. That's not the issue."
Jack Yuds, chairman of the Dodge County Republican Party, said he was tired of seeing all the ads for this race and was ready for it to be over. He said Schimel's key to victory would be winning a larger share of young voters than Republicans typically do, which helped President Donald Trump take Wisconsin in November.
Yuds said he was not resigned to accepting runaway campaign spending, but he added he didn't have many answers for reforming the system.
"The money should come from within the state, I believe," Yuds said. "But when is that gonna happen, you know what I mean? That's the real question. I'd like to see it someday, but politics is money."