Randy Koschnick

From Judgepedia

Randy R. Koschnick (b. 3/17/1960) is a Circuit Court Judge in the Jefferson County Circuit Court. Koschnick ran for election in 2009 to the Wisconsin Supreme Court against Shirley Abrahamson. ^[1] While the Supreme Court election is officially non-partisan, Koschnick is identified with the Republican Party.

Koschnick has been a judge in Wisconsin since 1999, having previously served for 14 years as a public defender.

Election results

Shirley Abrahamson was re-elected to her fourth term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on April 7th 2009. With all of the precincts counted in on April 9th, Abrahamson has defeated Randy Koschnick. The results have the numbers at with 60% (473,277) for the Chief Justice and 40% (319,481) for Circuit Judge Koschnick. Link to Results.

• Link to Article that the AP Declared Chief Justice Abrahamson the Winner
• Concession Statement from the Koschnick Campaign

Background

Koschnick was born in Milwaukee in 1960. Koschnick graduated from Whitefish Bay High School in the North Shore region in 1978 before graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1982 with his Bachelor's Degree and from the Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, MN in 1985 with his J.D..

Legal career

Prior to his nearly 10 years on the Jefferson County Circuit Court, Judge Koschnick served 14 years as public defender in La Crosse County and Jefferson County, where he was elevated to Deputy First Assistant State Public Defender (1985-1989). Koschnick also gained prosecution experience as an intern in the Homicide and Sexual Assault Prosecution Unit of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office in the Twin Cities Area where he prepared briefs for prosecuting attorneys from 1983-1985.

Judge Koschnick was first elected as a Circuit Court Judge in Jefferson County in 1999, when he won the seat over Watertown attorney Tom Levi, and where he has served to this date. Koschnick ran for the seat after the Wisconsin State Legislature authorized an additional judgeship for Jefferson County. ^[2]

Awards and associations

Judge Koschnick was named by the Wisconsin Law Journal as one of the 2008 "Leaders of the Law", an award that goes to a judge, a attorney, or a legal professional who shows distinction, achieves highly, and strives to improve the legal profession in the State of Wisconsin. ^[3]

• Judge Koschnick served as a Board Member of the State Bar of Wisconsin Criminal Law Section (2001-2005).^[4]
• He has also served on the Wisconsin State Assembly’s Criminal Justice Reforms Task Force since 2005, which implemented new, evidence-based practices in the areas of eyewitness identification and police interrogation of criminal suspects. These reforms were adopted to increase the reliability of criminal convictions and, at the same time, to reduce instances of wrongful convictions^[5].
• Judge Koschnick has lectured at legal training seminars sponsored by the Wisconsin Judicial Education Office, as well as at the Wisconsin District Attorney’s Conference and the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Conference^[4].
• Judge Koschnick helped create the Jefferson County Victim Impact Panel and served as the panel’s Coordinator and Moderator since 2003.

Supreme Court bid

For more information see Wisconsin Supreme Court elections

On November 17, 2008, Koschnick announced his bid to challenge Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson for a ten-year term in the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Koshnick calls himself a judicial conservative and said he considers his opponent a judicial activist.

"I vow to preserve and protect the independence and integrity of the court," said Koshnick. "I will work diligently to uphold respect for the law and to faithfully protect those individual rights that we value so highly in this wonderful blessed country."^[2]

Koshnick also called on Chief Justice Abrahamson to sign a clean campaign pledge which includes measures to abstain from and renounce personal attacks against each other. This comes from the 2008 race between Michael Gableman and Louis Butler which featured aggressive advertising from third party special interest groups on both sides of the aisle^[2]. On November 20, 2008, Koschnick issued a campaign press release requesting Chief Justice Abrahamson to sign a clean campaign pledge in a public appearance. Highlights of the pledge would include:

• Focusing on the records and judicial philosophies of the two candidates
• Renouncing personal attacks, refusing and returning contributions from parties with cases before their respective courts
• Substantiating all claims made during the course of the campaign
• Repudiating false accusations made by third party groups
• Having no fewer then six independent and public debates.^[6].

Endorsements

• Waukesha County Circuit Court Judges David Resheske, Donald Hassin, Patrick Haughney and Linda Van De Water^[7].
• Washington County Circuit Court Judge Patrick Faragher
• Ozaukee County Sheriff and Wisconsin Sheriff's Association President Marty Straub^[8].
• Eau Claire County Sheriff and Badger State Sheriff's Association President Ron Cramer^[8].
• Milwaukee Police Supervisors Association^[9].
• Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Steinmentz
• Wisconsin Right to Life Political Action Committee^[10].
• National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund^[11].
• Wisconsin Fraternal Order of Police ^[12].

Judicial philosophy

Koschnick has said that his judicial philosophy falls more in line with United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, wherein judges act more like umpires and interpret the law^[13].

Koschnick has said that government works when all three branches do only their prescribed duties and that law making is the duty of the Legislature. Koschnick has pointed out: "if advocacy groups feel they are not served effectively on the law, they should endorse like minded candidates to the legislature", articulating a philosophy of judicial restraint.

Campaign positions

Police practices

During a November 23, 2008 interview, Koschnick said that he supports the use of police techniques and practices in a ethical matter, and he opposes court decisions that would inhibit certain practices^[13].

In the 2005 case Dave v. DuBois, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional for police to do a "show-up", in which police track down a criminal suspect, put the suspect in the patrol car and show them to the victim. It would determined on the victim's account and probable cause to determine if a suspect gets arrested^[13].

During the case, Justice Abrahamson concurred with the majority to overturn this long-standing practice used by law enforcement. Koschnick said during his interview with Mike Gousha: "that certain supreme court rulings like the DuBois ruling are tying up law enforcement's ability to do their job"^[13].

Second Amendment and gun rights

Koschnick has been talking to voters at gun shows and hunting expos in the State of Wisconsin demonstrating his support for upholding gun rights^[14]. Wisconsin is among a handful of states that have a similar amendment in their state constitution that guarantees its citizens the right to to keep and bear arms for uses like hunting^[15].

Freedom of speech

Koschnick has been an advocate for freedom of speech, particularly as it relates to advertising by special interest groups and elections. During a recent interview he acknowledged that freedom of speech can be "messy", but that restricting such speech would be harmful.^[13]

Taxpayer financed campaigns

Koschnick has been a vocal critic of taxpayer financed judicial campaigns.

His campaign did not accept taxpayer subsidies in his 2009 race, and he filed a federal lawsuitchallenging the constitutionality of Wisconsin's recently-passed "Impartial Justice Act," which provides government money to state Supreme Court candidates, according to a Dec. 22 story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Koschnick, represented by James Troupis of Michael Best & Friedrick LLP and Stephen Hoersting of the Alexandria, Va.-based Center for Competitive Politics, is challenging the bill's "rescue funds" provision. Under Wisconsin's system, if a candidate who declines to participate in the public financing program spends more than a candidate who accepts government money, the participating candidate receives an increased taxpayer subsidy (up to $900,000 more). Under the new law, which is also being challenged by Wisconsin Right to Life, candidates who opt out must also place disclaimers on their ads noting that they are not complying with the new system.

The Center for Competitive Politics press release announcing the lawsuit notes that "[f]ederal judges in Arizona and Connecticut have ruled similar "rescue funds" provisions unconstitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court's reasoning in Davis v. Federal Election Commission (2008). The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a contrary federal appeals court decision in the Fourth Circuit upholding a similar North Carolina law, but the Supreme Court only hears about 80 out of 8,000 annual cert requests and such a denial is not an affirmation of the lower court's ruling.

PAC, Political Committee and Interest Group Contributions to Koschnick's campaign can be found at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign website.

Judicial activism

Koschnick has said that judicial activism runs along idelogicial lines, and that this is evident in how justices vote in similar blocks. Koschnick points out that judges in the same line of ideology may have differing opinions every once in a while^[13].

Also, his campaign website has a section on his front page called "Judicial Activism Watch." This section highlights some well-known people in the Wisconsin legal community including Diane Sykes, criticizing the Court's decisions under Chief Justice Abrahamson's tenure, for what they call "activist" decisions by the Court.

Mental health

Although Chief Justice Abrahamson led Wisconsin to more grant funding to deal with expediting mental health cases, Koschnick has been innovative in helping expedite cases involving mental health issues that help ease up a common backlog in the court system.

Koschnick's leadership as a Chief Judge saved Jefferson County taxpayers $30,000 per year using videoconferencing for mental health cases. Using videoconferencing enabled the court to see more mental health cases, easing the backlog which is common in courts nationwide^[16].

Previously, the county was spending roughly $30,000 per year to transport patients from the Mendota Mental Health Institution in Madison to Jefferson County. The county invested $60,000 in the videoconferencing equipment, yielding a short break-even period for the Court^[16].

Court administration

Koschnick has been noted for his innovations at the Jefferson County Circuit Courts, working with attorneys, prosecutors, court staff and other judges to improve the administration of the Court^[16].

When Koschnick became Chief Judge, he was able to divide the courts more equally on a two year rotation, easing a backlog of cases which have been common for many larger counties in Wisconsin. Counties like Dane County (and faster growing counties) have been dealing with backlogs and case delays^[16]. Under Koschnick, the Court was restructured into two criminal/traffic branches, a civil/family branch and a juvenile/probate/general branch. Previously, the cases were equally divided among the four judges serving under the previous Chief Judge, resulting in case backlogs due to this and unnecessary pre-trial conferences for minor cases, including some drunk driving and minor ordinance violations.

“One of my goals was to expedite repeat drunken driving cases, because they pose a significant public safety issue. Under the old system, they were languishing too long, too many defendants were getting additional OWIs while waiting for their cases to come to trial,” Koschnick said to the Wisconsin Law Journal in 2006^[16].

These moves trimmed down the length of cases from four months to nearly two months. Also, the retirement of certain court staff trimmed down one member of the staff to a part-time member. This resulted in increased public safety and taxpayer savings^[16]. Jefferson County Circuit Court has risen from 18th to 2nd statewide for overall median case age at disposition within the first twelve months of his new case assignment plan.

Court administration criticism

A retiring judge is criticizing Koschnick's practices as the Chief Judge of the Jefferson County Circuit Court. John Ullsvik disagrees with the way Jefferson County courts are being run, according to the Capital Times^[17].

Judge Ullsvik, who announced that he is not seeking re-election after 17 years on the bench, said in an interview that Koschnick and the system of assigning cases he instituted in September 2006 are the main reasons he's leaving^[17]. Ullsvik was assigned to handle civil/family cases as Jefferson County went from a small-town model where a judge hears all cases to a sectioned model used by larger counties where judges hear specialized cases to ease up case loads on judges and move high risk cases through the courts faster. ^[17]

"He has been very divisive to what was otherwise a harmonious courthouse," said Ullsvik, whose term ends next summer as a Circuit Court Judge. "He's given special treatment to his staff compared with the rest of the county courthouse staff. He's had court commissioners do work that the judges always did so he wouldn't have to do it."

Ullsvik and another Jefferson County judge, Jacqueline Erwin, opposed the changes. Despite the bad feelings under his watch, Koschnick said the situation is not an indictment of his leadership abilities. He said his decisions were approved by the County and the State, and were made in the interest of the public^[17].

External links

• Jefferson County Circuit Court
• Koschnick's Campaign Website
• 2008 Supreme Court Campaign - Biography and Contributions

References

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