The Republican candidates vying to win the party’s nomination for Attorney General on Aug. 9 are touting their tough-on-crime credentials as the winner could get the chance to shape the future of law enforcement, abortion, elections and more in Wisconsin.Â
The three-way race features former state lawmaker Adam Jarchow, conservative lawyer Karen Mueller and Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney.Â
On the campaign trail, Jarchow and Toney have jostled to position themselves as the top choice of law enforcement in their appeal to the party’s grassroots, painting a dire picture of unchecked lawbreaking in the state.
They’ve vowed to rein in Democratic district attorneys who they see as too weak on crime, pointing to record shootings in Milwaukee, the Waukesha Christmas parade tragedy and drug trafficking from Latin America.
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Jarchow, 43, has received the blessing of the National Rifle Association and Americans for Prosperity, an influential conservative group that is spending tens of thousands of dollars to support his campaign. On Twitter, Jarchow has routinely opined on national political issues like “woke liberalism,” President Joe Biden, inflation and transgender athletes — though he has deleted many of his past tweets.
As a district attorney, Toney, 38, has waded into statewide legal battles over elections. In April, he filed a lawsuit to remove five members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. His office also has charged five people with misdemeanor election fraud for using a UPS store P.O. box as a voting address. One person was convicted on Thursday and ordered to pay a $500 fine and court costs.
Mueller, who joined the race in March, has generated less buzz, centering her campaign around discredited claims about COVID-19 vaccines, likening them to the human experiments of Nazi Germany. Mueller did not respond to an interview request.
Jarchow and Toney have drawn contrasts between each other on who is best prepared to handle the responsibilities of Attorney General.
Toney, who has served as a district attorney for 10 years, frequently touts his experience as a prosecutor and relationships with district attorneys and law enforcement across the state. Jarchow, who served two terms in the state Assembly representing Balsam Lake, has worked in private practice for two decades. Â
Should he win in November, Jarchow would become the first elected attorney general since John W. Reynolds Jr. in 1958 who did not first serve as a district attorney, assistant district attorney or a U.S. attorney.
Jarchow has criticized Toney’s own record as a prosecutor. In one digital ad, Jarchow, beer in hand, blasts the charging of 10 Fond du Lac residents with violating Gov. Tony Evers’ original stay-at-home order, which included restaurant staff and diners. Toney has stressed that the charges were dismissed and that he’s required to enforce the law.
“I am the only candidate that will be prepared to immediately and swiftly bring transparency and accountability to the problems that we have with soft-on-crime judges and soft-on-crime district attorneys,” Jarchow said in an interview.Â
“My opponent is part of that club, and he has shown himself to be totally unwilling to hold DAs accountable,” he added.
Toney, in kind, often chides Jarchow with the slogan “we need a prosecutor, not a politician” as Attorney General.
“I’m the only GOP candidate that has ever prosecuted a case, let alone handled a criminal case,” Toney remarked in an interview, noting that he serves as president of the Wisconsin District Attorney’s Association.Â
“It uniquely puts me in a position to know how to work with law enforcement,” he said.Â
The winner of the primary will run against first-term Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul in November.
Kaul has called Jarchow and Toney right-wing extremists. They have called him a left-wing radical.
Kaul has a campaign war chest larger than the Republican field combined. In the first half of this year, Kaul raised nearly $1.2 million for his campaign. Jarchow raised about $448,000, Toney raised $102,000 and Mueller raised $42,271, according to campaign finance disclosures.
Taking on DAs
Jarchow and Toney present different solutions to the crime issue.
Toney has long called to give the state Department of Justice original jurisdiction over violent crime in Milwaukee County, arguing that crime in Wisconsin’s largest city often spreads to other parts of the state.Â
“If we protect Milwaukee, we protect all of Wisconsin,” Toney said.
Both candidates support reforming the state’s cash bail system by amending the state constitution. Toney said the state needs new laws that would allow judges to consider the future danger of defendants and what it means for someone to not be likely to appear in court.Â
“Unfortunately, we have an attorney general who has not advocated in favor of that, he’s actually advocated in favor of getting rid of cash bail,” Toney said. “That’s the consequence of someone who’s never prosecuted cases in Wisconsin.”
On the state’s bail system, Jarchow said he would create a statewide database through the Department of Justice that posts bail recommendations and the plea deals made by local district attorneys and judges.
“The voters are sick and tired of seeing criminals put back out on the street by soft-on-crime judges and DAs, and I will bring some transparency to it,” Jarchow said. “I will use the bully pulpit of the Attorney General’s Office to bring accountability to it.”
Jarchow’s other criminal justice policy proposals include more funding and grants for law enforcement training, recruitment and pay, along with the creation of a taskforce to help local law enforcement investigate and prosecute violent crimes.
As for whether he would publicly rebuke district attorneys with whom he disagrees, Jarchow didn’t rule it out, but said he would first stick to private conversations “making sure that individuals understand their performance.”
“But in this kind of environment, if that performance doesn’t improve, you bet we will make sure that the voters in those counties know that their district attorney is failing them,” Jarchow said.
Toney balked at Jarchow’s criticism of prosecutors.
“It shows he fundamentally does not understand the role of Attorney General and what that office actually does in working with prosecutors and law enforcement,” Toney said.
Abortion and Elections
The next Attorney General will play a crucial role in deciding the future of abortion and elections in the state.Â
Kaul has been in lockstep with his party on fighting a roll-back of abortion rights and efforts to call into question the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
Jarchow and Toney both oppose abortion and have promised to uphold the state’s 1849 anti-abortion law, which bans abortion even in cases of rape and incest. That law, with the appeal of Roe v. Wade in June, is currently being challenged in a lawsuit filed by Kaul, who argues it can’t be enforced and conflicts with other state abortion statutes.
Jarchow and Toney oppose the legal challenges to the abortion ban and say Kaul is picking and choosing what laws to enforce.
Toney said Kaul’s legal argument against the ban is flawed, likening it to battery statutes “that technically conflict with each other.”
When asked of his top priorities at a forum in Milwaukee last month, Jarchow said he wants to get cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.Â
“As we’ve seen this historic U.S. Supreme Court term wrap up with historic victories for conservatives you can draw a straight line in many of those victories back to the office of some Republican Attorney General or more than one attorney general in a variety of states,” Jarchow said in an interview.
A Republican would be uniquely positioned as Attorney General to shape Wisconsin’s elections system.
Toney said his office isn’t going to “pick and choose” which election laws to enforce.
“We’re not going to pick and choose that we’re not going to enforce this election law because somebody has a particular opinion about it,” he said.
Should he become attorney general, Jarchow has promised to launch a statewide investigation of the 2020 election to look into accusations that Wisconsin Elections Commission members broke the law regarding guidance it issued on voting in nursing homes.
Ground game
Unlike statewide governor and senate primaries, the Attorney General’s race has not had any public polling, leaving observers to look at the campaigns’ organization and financial support.Â
In Jarchow’s case, influential conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity has spent $90,000 on consulting, canvassing and online ads for his campaign, according to disclosures. No outside groups that don’t disclose their donors have spent money to boost Toney’s campaign.
“There’s no comparison,” Jarchow said. “We’re hitting our stride on the ground, and I don’t think that any campaign in this race can hold a candle to what we’re doing.”
But Toney has been on the trail longer than Jarchow, launching his campaign last April. Toney also beat Jarchow at the state Republican convention in May with 54% of the delegate vote compared to the former lawmaker’s 27% with 19% not endorsing. Toney did not meet the 60% threshold to automatically get the party’s endorsement.
Toney also has a deep bench of law enforcement support, from dozens of sheriffs and district attorneys, the Wisconsin Fraternal Order of Police and the Milwaukee Police Association.Â
“My campaign has been centered on standing with our law enforcement, fighting crime and enforcing the rule of law,” Toney said. “I talk about that all over Wisconsin. That’s the message and that’s what resonates with our grassroots.”
Capitol secrets: 10 little-known facts about the Wisconsin State Capitol building
1. Familiar face
No one has a better vantage point of Madison and beyond.
Perched atop the state Capitol, the 15-foot, 5-inch gold-gilded, bronze statue known simply as “Wisconsin” extends her right arm to the east in a gesture that recalls the state motto: “Forward.”
That may explain why she is frequently confused with the copper statue that is named “Forward,” installed near the east entrance of the Capitol in 1895, moved in 1909 to the North Hamilton Street approach and then relocated indoors to the Wisconsin Historical Society in 1995 after conservators discovered she was deteriorating. A bronze replica of “Forward” was installed in 1996 at the top of State Street.
Created by Daniel Chester French at a temporary studio on the cliffs of the Housatonic River in Massachusetts, the statue Wisconsin was cast in 1913 and 1914 at a foundry in Brooklyn, New York.
Standing 284 feet above ground and weighing more than 3 tons, she stands unflinching to the whims of the weather outside — and the political gusts that blow inside — the Capitol.
Her left hand holds a globe on top of which stands an eagle, while a badger, the state animal, rests atop her helmet in a nod to the state’s lead mining industry that was flourishing at the time of statehood in 1848.
Wisconsin was placed atop the Capitol’s lantern in 1914 — not entirely without incident. “In its perilous journey upward the statue was brushed against one or two projections and the gilt was scratched,” the Wisconsin State Journal reported in a story noting efforts shortly afterward to touch up her gold leaf.
She was restored with new gilding in 1932, 1957 and in 1990, when she received a $52,000 coat of 23-karat gold leaf. In 2000, workers touched up claw marks left by peregrine falcons on her head and arm.
An appealing sight anytime, the newly shimmering apparition held a special appeal for former Gov. Tommy Thompson after her last full recoat in 1990. Just days before the project was completed, Thompson, needing to burn off pent up energy on Election Day, climbed the scaffolding and is believed to be the first governor to touch the outside of the statue.
2. A well-traveled badger
Replicas of badgers are prolific throughout the state Capitol.
They can be found in sculptures, on door handles, murals and on the head of “Wisconsin,” the statue atop the Capitol.
And why not? The feisty, burrowing mammal that is in the same family as the weasel, wolverine and otter symbolizes the lead miners who came to southwestern Wisconsin in the early 1800s and dug crude homes into the hillsides.
Bucky Badger may travel the world for football, basketball and other events. But a 1,200-pound bronze badger outside the governor’s office has had quite a journey, too.
The badger, cast in 1899 from melted down Spanish cannons captured in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, is the work of Milwaukee artist Paul Kupper as part of a gift to the USS Wisconsin battleship. The badger rode on the bridge of the ship from 1901 when it was commissioned until the outbreak of World War I, when it was removed from the ship.
For more than 60 years, the badger was in a garden at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was returned to Wisconsin in 1988 to be part of a Wisconsin Historical Society exhibit timed to coincide with the recommissioning of the second USS Wisconsin. The badger was moved to the Capitol in 1989 after the exhibit closed, and now its nose is rubbed daily by tourists and passersby for good luck.
3. April Fool’s Day prank and a rumor 50 years later
There was a time when news and photographs couldn’t immediately be had with a smartphone or computer.
So when readers of The Capital Times received their copy of the paper on April 1, 1933, many were likely shocked to see a front page image of the state Capitol with its dome collapsed from “a series of mighty blasts,” the paper reported.
“A Capital Times cameraman arrived just in time to snap this unusual and sensational photograph of the mass of granite and steel as it fell,” it reported.
Of course, it was an April Fool’s Day hoax and explained later in an article.
In July 1981, a more real concern made the rounds of the Capitol news corps, but in the end turned out to be of little concern.
The Associated Press quashed a rumor that the dome of the Capitol could collapse. It started with reports of rusted girders and an off-hand remark by a legislator, who joked that he never walks in the rotunda for fear that engineers were wrong in their assessment that the building was fine.
That led several reporters to contact the head of the State Bureau of Facilities Management, who said the “girders” were actually just a reinforcing bar, among thousands inside the dome. A crack in the granite under the “Wisconsin” statue had caused a leak that rusted one of the bars, which was replaced.
4. Only God is perfect
The state Capitol is one of the grandest buildings not only in Wisconsin but throughout the nation.
It’s also not perfect, but you’ll need to look closely to find the imperfection.
When the construction was completed 100 years ago, stone masons left one tiny job unfinished because, historians say, of a tradition that says “only God is perfect.”
The flaw can be found on an exterior window finial facing Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near the southeast entrance. Unlike the opposite side of the window where a leafy piece of stone is set, the piece on the right side is relatively smooth and has no leaf appearance.
The building includes 43 kinds of stone from eight states and six countries and was completed in 1917 at a cost of $7.25 million. A 14-year, $158.8 million renovation and restoration project started in 1988 converted the building to a modern facility while retaining its historical character. But the makeover preserved the intentional flaw.
5. Ghost of the Assembly
Murals and mosaics in the state Capitol help tell the story of Wisconsin.
One of the most dramatic paintings is at the front of the Assembly Chamber where Edwin Howland Blashfield used a 16-foot, 6-inch by 37-foot, 8-inch canvas to evoke “Wisconsin.”
The painting depicts a woman, symbolizing the state, surrounded by other figures who represent her past. Three other women in the painting, each with aquatic plants entwined in her hair, represent lakes Superior and Michigan and the Mississippi River, according to Blashfield’s interpretation.
But barely visible in front of Father Claude Allouez, Green Bay’s first missionary, and just above a badger, is the ghost of the Assembly.
George Post, the Capitol’s architect, requested a badger be placed in the mural. In doing so, Blashfield painted over one of the members of the Civil War color guard. But when the mural was cleaned with 20,000 Q-tips in 1988, the soldier became slightly visible and the “ghost” of the Capitol was born.
“Over time, oil paint becomes more translucent,” said Ken Rosenberg, lead tour guide at the Capitol. “You can see through it a little more, so you can see that figure more.”
The image is best seen when standing more to the left side of the chamber, which is bathed in natural light from a massive, circular skylight.
6. Stinking sturgeon helps change rule for wardens
The idea was to better manage game wardens and what they did with confiscated fish and game.
For years, Wisconsin law required that game taken illegally be sold for the benefit of the state. But in 1932, when some lawmakers learned that a few wardens were keeping the carcasses for themselves, they enacted a provision requiring seized fish and game be sent to the state Capitol.
No one thought of where or how it should be stored once it reached Madison. A sturgeon was the first entry into a non-refrigerated basement storage room and was quickly followed by a large piece of venison.
The storage room was located next to an elevator shaft that went past the Supreme Court chambers.
“As bacteria began to work their magic on the abandoned flesh, unintended consequences of the new regulation began to waft into powerful noses,” Michael Edmonds writes in his book, “The Wisconsin Capitol: Stories of a Monument and its People.”
Edmonds reports that Tony Pickerts, the Capitol custodian, needed to use state-of-the-art disinfectants to rid the storage room of the smell once the sturgeon and venison were removed.
Not surprisingly, the provision to send confiscated fish and game to the Capitol was revoked.
7. Statuary groups symbolize best of Wisconsin
From a distance, the Capitol can be taken in as a whole. A closer view reveals significant, but sometimes overlooked, details of the building that was constructed from 1906 to 1917.
At the base of the Capitol dome sit four groupings of three statues made from Bethel White Vermont granite between 1911 and 1915. Each grouping, sculpted by Karl Bitter, one of the country’s greatest sculptors, symbolizes fundamental characteristics of the state and its people.
The groupings can be seen from the sidewalk rimming the Capitol grounds, but closer views are afforded from the Capitol’s outdoor observation deck.
The southeast group overlooks Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and represents faith, as Bitter chose to emphasize “the importance of religion as a force in developing good citizenship,” according to a state Capitol guidebook. Each member of the group has its head bowed.
The northwest group facing Wisconsin Avenue represents prosperity and abundance with two of the female statues holding a cornucopia, a symbol of plenty. The southwest group at West Washington Avenue represents strength, with the central figure holding a sword and shield. The northeast group facing East Washington Avenue represents knowledge, with two of the figures looking over scrolls and books.
8. Replica of Liberty Bell
The Capitol holds a replica of the Liberty Bell, given to Wisconsin by France in 1950 as part of a savings bond drive and quite a bit of controversy.
The 2,045-pound bell, 85 percent of which is copper, is the same weight and size of the original but has no crack and is on display on the second floor of the Capitol rotunda.
The bell was first housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society but was later moved to the State School for Girls in Oregon, where it was discovered in 1968 in rough shape and missing its clapper.
The framework was repaired and the clapper replaced when the bell moved to Fountain Park in Sheboygan, where it was rung each Fourth of July. The bell was supposed to be in Sheboygan for only about a year but wasn’t moved back to Madison until 1975.
The move, designed to help the state celebrate the country’s Bicentennial in 1976, was preceded by heated letters from Sheboygan officials who wanted the bell to remain in their city and an executive order from Mayor Richard Suscha making it illegal for anyone to set foot in the park for the purpose of removing the bell.
The state threatened legal action, Suscha rescinded his executive order and, after two years of haggling, the bell was returned to Madison.
“I can assure you that on my many trips to Madison I will keep a wary eye on the Liberty Bell and make sure it does not get shoved off in some corner of the Capitol unnoticed by residents of the state,” Suscha wrote in a letter to the state in March 1975. “I may have lost the battle of the bell, but I have not lost the war.”
9. State constitution still MIA
One of the state’s most important documents, perhaps the most important document, remains missing.
There are three handwritten copies of the state constitution, but the original document, drafted at a constitutional convention in Madison in December 1847, approved in February 1848 and adopted by voters a month later, disappeared shortly afterward.
It’s unclear who may have taken or borrowed the state’s legal charter, but one theory is that it may have been loaned to a newspaper publisher and not returned. According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, as soon as the constitution was approved by the delegates, newspaper publishers rushed copies into print so voters, who rejected a first draft in 1846, could evaluate it.
The first printing appears to have been in the Potosi Republican on Feb. 10, 1848, while Madison printers H.A. Tenney and Beriah Brown issued the constitution in pamphlet form at about the same time.
The copy on display in the Capitol rotunda is not signed but is a replica of the original document.
10. Foreman killed during construction
The construction of the Capitol didn’t come without tragedy.
As the West Wing was nearing completion in October 1909, Daniel Logan, a construction foreman, was killed while laying a four-ton piece of granite for the base of a statue 80 feet above the ground when the stone beneath it cracked, causing a collapse.
Logan had been preparing a stone pediment to hold partially carved statues designed by Karl Bitter when the collapse occurred, according to historian Michael Edmonds. An investigation showed that extra weight from the unfinished statues had caused the collapse. From that point on, all statues were completed in shacks on the Capitol grounds or at a West Washington Avenue railroad depot.
