Ex-justice’s Wisconsin election probe drags as critics scoff

MADISON, Wis. — The leader of a sprawling, taxpayer-funded probe of Joe Biden’s victory in battleground Wisconsin ignited his political career in 2008 by unseating the first Black justice on the state Supreme Court, capitalizing on an ad that sparked ethics complaints and allegations of racism. Michael Gableman’s commercial against then-Justice Louis Butler drew comparisons with the infamous Willie Horton ad from the 1988 presidential race and an official complaint from the state judicial commission. Republican state Sen. Kathy Bernier, a former elections clerk who is retiring next year, has called Gableman’s review a “charade” and said “no one should falsely accuse election officials of cheating.” Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, also a Republican, has called the Wisconsin investigation part of a national disinformation campaign designed to “keep the lies of the 2020 election alive.” “I don’t think he has an ounce of credibility because he is someone who has always had a cloud over him in public life,” said Sachin Chheda, a Democratic strategist who ran Butler’s unsuccessful reelection campaign against Gableman 14 years ago. Gableman further fueled his critics in October, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he didn’t have a “comprehensive understanding of how elections work.” And he only increased suspicion about his work by traveling to Arizona to observe the widely ridiculed recount there; attending a symposium in South Dakota headed by MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell that included presentations from conspiracy theorists.