March 30, 2023 at 11:56 a.m.
River News: Our View
Michael Schiek for Oneida County judge
When Gov. Tony Evers appointed judge Burns to the bench, he made a nakedly partisan appointment - a political payoff to a local Democrat and Evers' supporter - and it has shown on her short time on the bench.
That said, we have had a complicated relationship with Mr. Schiek. He is not without his flaws. Over the years, the district attorney has had a funny way of finding people guilty of open meetings and open records infractions but deciding they don't deserve any punishment.
More recently, though, he has evolved for the better on open records. In a case against former Rhinelander city administrator Daniel Guild, who was accused of felony tampering with public records and of misconduct in office related to open records, Mr. Schiek argued forcefully for upholding the open records law. The charges against Mr. Guild were ultimately dismissed, but not before Mr. Schiek drove home the importance of the public records law. He argued that Mr. Guild intentionally and blatantly refused to comply with an open records request, and then the district attorney set out to assert the importance of the open records laws:
"This flies in the face of the Legislative declaration (that the public policy of the state is that all persons are entitled to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them). Without the requirement, there are no checks and balances, there is no transparency. The defendant should not be allowed to circumvent the open records law."
He did not win the case but bravo.
More disappointingly, Mr. Schiek refused to file charges in several alleged sexual assault cases, when we believed the evidence showed probable cause to at least go to court. One of those was an incident from 2020 in which a woman said she was sexually assaulted during a period of more than 90 minutes that it took police to respond to repeated 911 calls and requests for police to help her.
It's not just Mr. Schiek, but he is part of a larger pattern of prosecutorial neglect of sexual assault cases. Too many rapists and assault perpetrators walk the streets, and they will continue to do so until a strong district attorney - and judge - steps up and says enough is enough.
If Mr. Schiek is elected, we hope his thinking on this issue will evolve, too.
But Mr. Schiek has also shined in court, particularly in the cold case murder conviction of Robin Mendez in 2019 and in balancing the right to a fair trial for a double homicide suspect with the public's right to know in 2015.
All of which brings us to Mary Roth Burns: She has not shined on the bench. We hear multiple off-the-record complaints that she doesn't have a clue when it comes to civil law. That's not surprising because her resume was paper thin when Mr. Evers appointed her. According to the governor's office, judge Burns worked for the Wisconsin State Public Defender's Office from 2008 until August 2021, when she opened her own law practice in Rhinelander, representing only clients in criminal and family matters.
On criminal law she appears to follow in the footsteps of far-left judges and district attorneys by going easy on multiple felony offenders, especially in granting early release to people who are effectively career criminals.
That compromises public safety, something that Michael Schiek would never do.
Something else that Mr. Schiek would never do is wear his ideology on his sleeve and weaponize it for later use on the bench. That's the hallmark of a moderate as opposed to an extremist. While judge Burns embraces her progressive activism, Mr. Schiek has never weighed in on issues that might come before the court, even though as DA he has run as a Republican because it is technically a "partisan" position in this state.
In contrast, judge Burns is a walking poster child as a far-left activist. For instance, she joined about 20 of her fellow comrades at an event to support women's rights, organized by Northwoods Progressives. The theme of the event: "Bigger Than Roe."
As we have reported, judge Burns is a reliable Evers' supporter and Democratic Party loyalist who has given money to such candidates as Kirk Bangstad, the 2020 Democratic nominee for the 34th Assembly district, and who has supported such favorite Democratic causes as redistricting reform and campaign finance reform.
In addition to a $100 campaign donation to Bangstad in 2020, she forked over two $100 donations to Democrat Ed Vocke in his bid to defeat Mary Felzkowski for the state Senate. She gave $100 to Evers in 2020, though Evers wasn't on the ballot, and to liberal Democrat Lisa Neubauer in 2019 in Neubauer's race for the state Supreme Court, in which she was defeated by Brian Hagedorn. In 2020, she gave $100 to support liberal Jill Karofsky's successful run for the high court.
She also contributed $100 to Evers in 2018, and in 2020, she hosted a virtual fundraiser for Democrat Tricia Zunker in Zunker's unsuccessful run against Tom Tiffany for Congress.
But her activism extends beyond mere monetary support for Democratic candidates. She has also been an activist for causes associated with Democrats. For example, before she was appointed, judge Burns actively urged the Pine Lake town board to place two referenda questions on the spring 2020 ballot, one to create "a nonpartisan procedure for the preparation of legislative and congressional redistricting plans," and another to denounce "corporate personhood" and cut off the ability of corporations to give campaign contributions.
While the redistricting referendum technically called for nonpartisan reform, it was backed by Democrats and progressive organizations whose goal is to take legislative and congressional redistricting away from elected representatives and put it into the hands of unelected "independent commissions." The organizations aligned with the groups pushing the referenda were long-time cohorts of the Democratic Party, including the One Wisconsin Institute, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, and the Center for Media and Democracy.
Then, too, judge Burns ran for the Oneida County board of supervisors and was soundly defeated by Diana Harris. During the campaign, she proclaimed on her Facebook page that she was "not a left-wing crackpot." All of which confirms that, to many, including us, judge Burns is exactly a "left-wing crackpot."
Another of her posts took aim at mining and at too much development in the county, and she proclaimed that she would support regulating water right down to "trickles."
"One of my campaign issues is protecting our waters in Oneida County," she posted. "I LOVE our lakes, and I am determined to defend our water - lakes, rivers, streams, trickles - from all types of destruction. That includes mining, pollution (including PFAS), destruction (from over-development), and invasive species."
She also said during the campaign that she believes the state has worked to prevent local government from protecting water quality.
All of these positions present as radical big-government progressive talking points. If judge Burns is elected to a full term on the bench, those talking points will likely be used as her guiding principles in court cases. The voters should not let her.
Let's elect Michael Schiek on Tuesday and keep our justice system independent of ideological extremists.
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