Happ, Schimel vow to focus on public safety, not politics

Madison — In theirthird and final debate, the candidates for attorney general on Wednesday said they would put public safety before politics while taking occasional jabs at each other.

"Law enforcement trusts me to put politics aside and put public safety first," said Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel, the Republican in the race.

"I want to change the way we do business in our state Capitol," said Jefferson County District Attorney Susan Happ, the Democrat. "I'm tired of the divisiveness."

Also Wednesday, Happ released an email showing a second state agency had found she acted properly in handling the case of Daniel J. Reynolds. Happ had a $180,000 land contract with Reynolds when a referral was brought to her accusing Reynolds of sexual assaulting a child.

Schimel — who is running an ad that says Happ "profits from predators" — has repeatedly criticized Happ over the case. But she released a unanimous ruling Wednesday from the state Government Accountability Board saying "there is not a factual basis to believe that Ms. Happ violated" state ethics laws because she had walled herself off from the case. The prosecution was handled by an assistant district attorney.

Earlier this month, the state Office of Lawyer Regulation dismissed a complaint over the issue because it found there was no proof she had acted improperly.

Responding to those findings, Schimel told reporters Happ should have assigned a special prosecutor to the case instead of giving it to someone in her office. He said he would not take his ad about the case off the air, as Happ has demanded.

At Wednesday's debate at the headquarters of the Wisconsin Bar, Happ said Schimel had gone negative and mischaracterized her record with his ad.

"I think the tone and tenor of the campaign has really gotten awry" because of Schimel, she said.

Schimel cast Happ as an activist who would try to stop a proposed iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin and "make our state less safe and our economy less stable."

"You should fear her do-more agenda," he said.

The debate — sponsored by the bar, WISC-TV in Madison and Wispolitics.com — was held just hours after Marquette University Law School released a poll showing Schimel leading Happ 43% to 39% among likely voters. That leaves 18% up for grabs.

With less than a week before Tuesday's election, the candidates remain unfamiliar to voters. Nearly 70% said they didn't know enough to have a favorable or unfavorable opinion about them.

Schimel repeatedly called himself the more experienced candidate, noting he has been a prosecutor for nearly 25 years and a district attorney for eight years. Happ was in private practice for a decade before being elected district attorney six years ago.

"I'm ready to go statewide," Schimel said.

Happ said she was a fighter from the time she was born nine weeks early at three pounds and one ounce. She said her father signed her up for wrestling tournaments but she stopped "because I kept beating the boys and I made them cry."

"I'll talk straight and you will always know where I stand," she said.

As they did in the previous debates, Happ and Schimel differed over what laws they would defend.

"When you take the oath of office, you don't raise your hand and then cross your fingers," Schimel said.

Happ countered that Schimel's approach was "absurd" because he had said in a cable access interview he would have defended a law banning interracial marriage if he had been attorney general of a state with such a law in the 1950s.

"Unlike Brad, I don't think the attorney general is a robot" who must defend all laws, Happ said.

Happ has said she would not defend Wisconsin's voter ID law, recent abortion regulations and the recently overturned ban on same-sex marriage. The voter ID law and abortion regulations have been blocked by courts while they review whether they are constitutional.

During their exchange, Schimel did not bring up cases Happ handled in which domestic abusers claimed mental illness as a defense — an issue he has steadily pushed in recent days.

Over six years, Happ resolved 13 cases of domestic abuse where the perpetrator pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. In such cases, offenders are considered to have committed the crimes but are not legally responsible for them and are put in the custody of the state Department of Health Services.

In a news release, Schimel said having a mental illness does not automatically allow someone to avoid responsibility for their crimes.

"Justice requires that we put forth our maximum effort to ensure the guilty do not game the system," he said in a written statement.

In a written response, Happ said it was unethical and inhumane to call for imprisoning mentally ill people.