Karofsky campaign issues cease and desist letter over misleading ads

By: Ruth Conniff - March 27, 2020 3:38 pm

Judge Jill Karofsky (via Jill for Justice)

Judge Jill Karofsky (Photo: Jill for Justice)

Judge Jill Karofsky’s Supreme Court campaign announced it would issue a cease and desist letter on Friday, demanding that groups supporting her opponent, Justice Daniel Kelly, immediately stop airing attack ads that falsely claim Karofsky was the prosecutor who struck a plea deal allowing a man charged with sexual assault of a child not to serve time behind bars.

Two Republican State Leadership Committee digital ads call Karofsky “dangerously soft on crime” and refer to the case State of Wisconsin vs. Donald A Worley.

Former Gov. Scott Walker, who appointed Karofsky’s opponent, Kelly, to the Supreme Court, tweeted out one of the ads on Friday:

https://twitter.com/ScottWalker/status/1243580627426967556

But the Karofsky campaign says she had nothing to do with the 1999 case.

“Court records clearly show Karofsky first made an appearance on 7/30/2001, at a hearing to extend Worley’s probation, more than a year after a different Dane County Assistant District Attorney reached the plea deal with the defendant,” a campaign press release states. “The defendant pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years probation on 3/20/2000.”

“These false, baseless, and disgusting attack ads must be pulled down immediately,” said Karofsky campaign manager Tyler Hendricks.

“Judge Jill Karofsky has spent decades as a victim’s advocate and she’s the only candidate who has held violent criminals accountable as a trial court judge.”

You can watch the ads here and here.

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Ruth Conniff

Ruth Conniff is Editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner. She formerly served as Editor-in-chief of The Progressive Magazine where she worked for many years from both Madison and Washington, DC. Shortly after Donald Trump took office she moved with her family to Oaxaca, Mexico, and covered U.S./Mexico relations, the migrant caravan, and Mexico’s efforts to grapple with Trump. Conniff is the author of "Milked: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Workers" which won the 2022 Studs and Ida Terkel award from The New Press. She is a frequent guest on MSNBC and has appeared on Good Morning America, Democracy Now!, Wisconsin Public Radio, CNN, Fox News and many other radio and television outlets. She has also written for The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, among other publications. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her husband and three daughters.