$250,000 In Dark Money Backs Appeals Court Candidate

A conservative Waukesha County circuit judge who is running for a State Court of Appeals seat got a $250,000 boost from an out-of-state electioneering group.

Judge Maria Lazar is seeking a six-year term on the 2nd District Court of Appeals, which covers 12 southeastern Wisconsin counties, excluding Milwaukee County. She faces Appeals Judge Lori Kornblum, a veteran prosecutor who was appointed to fill the seat last November by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The election is April 5.

Documents filed with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission showed a group called Fair Courts America located in Downers Grove, Ill., spent $250,000 earlier this month on television ads to support Lazar. Little else is known about the group.

The address and suite listed by the group matches that of Alexander Chemical Co., which makes and sells water purification products. A call to the Alexander Chemical Co. only added to the mystery. “We don’t even have that address anymore,” said Natasha Sponaugle, a customer service representative for the company, which she said is based in Indiana.

Lazar, who was elected to a six-year term as circuit judge in 2015, is also a former assistant state attorney general who defended the state in lawsuits against Act 10, a controversial 2011 law signed by former GOP Gov. Scott Walker that severely restricts public employee collective bargaining rights.

A recent report by the Appleton Post-Crescent found that Lazar was endorsed by numerous individuals who have questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election or advocated to decertify the election results in Wisconsin, which legal scholars have called illegal.

Those endorsements, which are listed on Lazar’s campaign website, include former conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, Madison attorney Jim Troupis, and Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Bob Spindell.

Gableman was hired last year by GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to investigate the results of the 2020 election. Gableman was mired in criticism for his handling of the probe and his recommendations to lawmakers to try to decertify the results, among other things. Troupis is a Madison attorney who led former President Trump’s recount efforts in the state. Spindell was one of 10 Republicans who posed as electors in December 2020 and sent Congress documents saying that Trump won the election in Wisconsin.