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By Steve Jagler Special to OnMilwaukee.com E-mail author | Author bio More articles by Steve Jagler

Published April 3, 2008 at 3:39 p.m.

Tags: tds, supreme court, gableman

David Wittwer, president and chief executive officer of TDS Telecom, the Madison-based parent company of TDS Metrocom, has resigned from the board of directors of the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), the state's largest business lobbying group.

Wittwer and other members of the WMC board have been feeling pressure because of the partisan political stances and expenditures by the organization.

Critics say the WMC has bought the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The WMC spent an estimated $2.2 million on television commercials that criticized former Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Linda Clifford last summer. Clifford ultimately was defeated by the WMC-backed candidate, Annette Ziegler, who was then reprimanded for failing to recuse herself from cases involving companies with whom she had financial ties.

On Tuesday, challenger Mike Gableman won a narrow victory over Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler, who was the first African-American to serve on the court. The WMC spent more than $2 million for commercials that criticized Butler in a race that featured television commercials that drew national attention from news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and The Associated Press.

The ads supporting Gableman and criticizing Butler were denounced as being misleading by several organizations, including the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Common Cause Wisconsin.

Wittwer had been criticized by Waukesha resident Jim Bouman, a TDS customer who wrote a letter to Wittwer, threatening to cancel his service because of Wittwer's affiliation with the WMC.

Bouman, who writes a blog titled, "Water Blogged in Waukesha," called Gableman an "utterly cluesess waterboy for the fat cats."

Wittwer responded with a letter to Bouman, telling him, "From your letter it is abundantly clear you hold sharp differences in opinion to some of those espoused by the WMC. Without question, you are entitled to share those viewpoints with me. TDS is the company you have entrusted to be your communications solution provider and we do our level best to maintain that level of trust in everything we do. Further, TDS takes our customers' viewpoints and expressions of dissatisfaction seriously. With that in mind, I believe it important to share with you that, for personal and philosophical reasons, I have resigned my seat as a member of the WMC board of directors. It would be untrue for me to suggest that your letter was the catalyst for my departure form the leadership of this statewide trade association, but I wanted to personally make you aware of my decision."

Bouman then shared Wittwer's letter in his blog and responded with the following comments: "I am sticking with TDS. Wittwer's resignation and plea to retain my business speak eloquently of the influence we have with our consumer choices. I'm really happy to remain a customer, in touch with the TDS staff and professionals who have provided great service over the years. And my opinion of Wittwer is up more than a few notches -- he operates a good business that provides really good service and he is personally pragmatic."

SBT received e-mails from several business leaders and some labor officials this morning, applauding Wittwer's decision to resign from the WMC board.

However, Drew Peterson, director of legislative and public relations for TDS Telecom, told SBT that Wittwer's decision to resign from the WMC board was not based on political heat generated by the criticism of the WMC's tactics.

"It was purely a person decision on behalf of David Wittwer. It did not have anything to do with political issues," said Peterson, who acknowledged the national attention generated by the Supreme Court race.

The race continued to raise eyebrows when the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign reported that out-of-state interests poured in $50,000 to Gableman campaign on March 17, just two weeks before the election. The five $10,000 contributions came from Paul Singer, Gordon and Jenny Singer, Bonnie Loeb and Jay Newman with Elliot Management Corp., a New York hedge firm, according to the WDC.

In another Milwaukee Biz Blog entry today, Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which has been critical of the impact of large campaign donations by both right-leaning corporations and left-leaning groups such as the Wisconsin Education Association Council, says big money is soiling the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

5 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by milwacko on April 6, 2008 at 11:17 a.m. (report)

Thank you for so clearly showing your hand. This is why I abandoned liberalism and its adjunct, "intellectualism." Without going into detail, I have all the bona fides necessary to maintain membership in this dumb-ass club but I've seen its failings and have moved on to greener (adult) pastures. So, on what do you base your assertion that "most people do not pay much close attention to the political scene"? Yes, many don't vote, but those that do, what do you know about the intricacies of their personal political thinking? Nothing that isn't supported by your own liberal agenda. Like so much of crippled liberal thinking these days, you just "feel" that this is the way things are. You assume that anyone who doesn't fall lock-step with the program is somehow an idiot or is actively working to put their thumb down on the heads of good working folk. You are a cynic, my friend. I'm not saying that these ads had no impact, only that there's no evidence to suggest that they turned the tide. Remember, there was a lot of public backlash from ALL quarters (including conservatives) about their veracity. And you say nothing of the equally misleading ads produced by WEAC et al. I saw both ads a lot and still chose Gableman because, like I've said before, I didn't want a liberal on the bench. I suspect many felt the same way. There are three other conservative justices on the bench now. How do you think they got voted in? Hypnosis? Poisoned drinking water?

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Posted by rufus on April 5, 2008 at 6:43 p.m. (report)

Well, if those commercials didn't have an impact, why, do you suppose, the WMC would spend $2 million on them? If these commercials weren't effective, they wouldn't spend the money. Sadly, most people do not pay much close attention to the political scene. Those are the people who can be swayed by deceptive TV commercials. For many, that's the ONLY piece of information they see about the candidates. So, you are naive if you think this election was not bought and paid form, especially in an election in which only 20 percent of the electorate voted.

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Posted by milwacko on April 5, 2008 at 9:37 a.m. (report)

Rufus, we can both agree that the advertising that the WMC sponsored was misleading and coarse. I would add that WEAC and other opposing groups produced similar ads. However, it is a canard to suggest that the WMC somehow bought the election by producing ads. That is, unless, you cynically assume that the electorate are idiots and will vote only on what they see on TV. And we all now that next verse in this song: "campaign finance reform." And we all know that this only seeks to silence one half of the political discourse, the right half. Regardless if it were applied to both halves, it would violate the 1st amendment. I, for one, saw the ads and cringed but voted for Gableman anyways because I wanted a judicial conservative on the bench, not a liberal one. The judiciary may be unified on their desire to be segregated from election pressures, but too bad. As long as justices' decisions will be based on political or ideological agendas (hey, check out the Gary George decision. The state bar didn't even want this guy back in!), the rest of us will want a say in who serves. Democracy, as I understand it, revolves around majority rule. The votes were counted, and Gableman won. Neither of us liked the discourse and, frankly, I'm troubled by Gableman's willingness to engage in this kind of stuff, but don't assume Butler lost because of it.

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Posted by rufus on April 4, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. (report)

to that last commentator ... Are you serious? What critics, you say? Are you living in a cave? For starters, how about these 30 judges, both liberal and conservative-leaning: Fmr. Justice William Bablitch, Wisconsin Supreme Court Presiding Judge Paul B. Higginbotham, Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District IV Presiding Judge Daniel P. Anderson, Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District II Judge Charles P. Dykman, Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District IV Judge Joan Kessler, Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District I Judge Dominic Amato, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Carl Ashley, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Dorothy Bain, Marathon County Circuit Court Judge David Barowski, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Andrew Bissonnette, Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Patrick Brady, Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Karen Christenson, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Dennis Cimpl, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Conen, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Cooper, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge John Damon, Trempealeau County Circuit Court Judge John DiMotto, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge M. Joseph Donald, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Donegan, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Ramona Gonzalez, LaCrosse County Circuit Court Judge Glenn Hartley, Lincoln County Circuit Court Judge John Hoffmann, Waupaca County Circuit Court Judge Raymond Huber, Waupaca County Circuit Court Judge Charles Kahn, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Philip Kirk, Waupaca Circuit Court Judge Mary Kuhnmuench, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Edward Leineweber, Richland County Circuit Court Judge Patricia McMahon, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Marshall Murray, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Dale Pasell, LaCrosse County Circuit Court Judge William Pocan, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Mary Triggiano, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Van Akkeren, Sheboygan County Circuit Court Judge Paul Van Grunsven, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Wagner, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Then there's the Wisconsin Judicial Campaign Integrity Committee, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, former Justic Jeske, One Wisconsin Now and even Charlie Freaking Sykes. Give me a break. This campaign sunk to an all-time low. They bought the last two judicial elections outright. They bought the majority in the court. And these judges will never bit the hands that fed them. To think otherwise is completely naive! The WMC did buy this court. And the court is now signed, sealed and delivered for their agenda. And that is disgusting. Our democracy is now officially broken.

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Posted by milwacko on April 3, 2008 at 10:14 p.m. (report)

"Critics say the WMC has bought the Wisconsin Supreme Court." Which critics? You? Others that aren't happy Butler lost? What about WEAC and other liberal PACs? Did they not pony enough to buy the court? Will "critics" suggest their money has "soiled" the is court the next time a liberal wins a seat? Are you suggesting that voters are simply dumb sheep and ads will swing the election one or the other? Granted WMC's ads on behalf of Gableman were shrill and misleading, but others on behalf of Butler were inversely identical. Steve, could it simply be that more WI voters wanted a conservative rather than a liberal? Is this political? Yes. Elections are inherently political. Which leads us to the liberal suggestion that a constitutional change is in order to force selection rather than election of justices, and, in typical liberal "intellectual" elitist fashion, that voters shouldn't judge a potential justice's judicial ideology, that this selection should not include any consideration outside of one's resume, endorsements, etc. Sorry, voters are smarter than that.

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