The largest individual donor to Brian Hagedorn’s campaign for the Wisconsin Supreme Court had previously warned employees about potential consequences if the 2012 presidential election did not produce the result he wanted.
According to news reports available at the time, employees of Michael White’s company, Rite-Hite, received a workplace email in late October 2012 warning of “personal consequences” if President Barack Obama were reelected.
Hagedorn, who was backed by Republicans, faced Democratic-backed Wisconsin Court of Appeals Chief Judge Lisa Neubauer for a seat on the state Supreme Court in April 2019. The seat opened after Justice Shirley Abrahamson announced her retirement.
State campaign-finance records cited in the report showed that White donated $20,000 to Hagedorn’s campaign on Nov. 20, 2018. At the time, that was the maximum individual contribution allowed by law.
One Wisconsin Now executive director Scot Ross questioned whether a judicial candidate should accept the contribution in light of the workplace email. The statement characterized the message as a threat to employees’ livelihoods if an election did not go the executive’s way.
The report said the email warned that reelection of Obama could result in the elimination of retirement benefits and employer-provided health care. It also quoted the message as saying, “Every opportunity to make up for lost profits to taxes will have to be evaluated.”
Employees shared the email with news media only on condition of anonymity, according to the report, because they feared losing their jobs.
The report also raised a legal question. Wisconsin law prohibits an employer from using threats against employees to influence their political actions or votes. The article did not report a court finding that White violated that law.
Obama won Wisconsin and was reelected in 2012. The dire economic outcome predicted in the email did not occur as described. The later campaign contribution placed the old message back under scrutiny during the 2019 judicial race.
What this report documents
- A workplace message distributed shortly before the 2012 presidential election.
- A $20,000 campaign contribution recorded in November 2018.
- The political context of Wisconsin’s 2019 Supreme Court contest.
- Questions raised by an advocacy organization about workplace pressure and judicial campaign funding.
