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Dan Kelly, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice running for a seat on the same court, was paid almost $120,000 by the Wisconsin Republican Party and the Republican National Committee to work on election issues after he left the court in August 2020. The revelations came to light when Andrew Hitt, the former state GOP chairman, testified to the US House committee investigating January 6, 2021, attacks on the US Capitol.
According to Hitt’s testimony, Kelly worked as a “special counsel” and had “pretty extensive conversations” about the fake Republican electors. Even though he lost the state, the electors, who were part of a plan to cast ballots for former President Donald Trump, met in the Wisconsin Capitol building on the same day that Democrats cast the state’s ten electoral votes for Joe Biden. Hitt and others who cast ballots for Trump said they were doing so in case courts overturned Biden’s win and gave the state to Trump. Biden won the state by nearly 21,000 votes, and every attempt by Trump and his allies to overturn the results failed.
Kelly is one of four candidates in the Tuesday primary, with the top two vote-getters advancing to the April 4 general election. The winner will determine whether the court remains 4-3 majority conservative or flips to liberal control. Trump endorsed Kelly during his unsuccessful run for the court in 2020.
Kelly’s campaign spokesperson, Jim Dick, denied that Kelly was involved in the fake elector scheme, stating that he “took a call from RPW Chairman Hitt on the subject of Republican electors and was asked if he was in the loop about this issue and Justice Kelly stated he was not.” Dick also said that Kelly “provided legal counsel to several clients, including the RNC and RPW. It is a maxim in the legal profession that clients’ views are not attributable to their attorneys.”
Two liberal candidates, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz and Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell, and one conservative candidate, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow, are running against Kelly in the primary. Dorow did not respond to requests for comment.
In a statement to the Associated Press, Protasiewicz’s spokesperson, Sam Roecker, said that “there’s no doubt Dan Kelly is a partisan extremist, as much as he’d like to dishonestly pretend otherwise. His continued efforts to overturn Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election results are disqualifying.” Mitchell said that he believes “we need a separation between partisanship and justice. Because when partisanship invades our court system leads to pre-determined outcomes, the diminishing of justice, and the destruction of equity.”
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In addition to advising the state party on the fake elector scheme in 2020, federal elections records show that the Republican National Committee paid Kelly and his firm, Daniel Kelly Consulting, $110,000 from March to December 2022 for “legal and compliance services,” including a $40,000 payment he received after he announced his run for the state Supreme Court in September. Kelly also lists the RNC as a client on his ethics statement, calling himself a spokesman for the national party.
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Supreme Court candidate Kelly worked for Republicans
