State Supreme Court Justice Pat Roggensack has at least nine times as much campaign money as each of her two challengers. Campaign finance reports filed this week show Roggensack had $55,000 dollars in her campaign fund at the start of the year. Milwaukee attorney Vince Megna had $6,900 in the bank, and Marquette law professor Ed Fallone had $5,400.
Roggensack, who’s running for her second 10-year term, raised $34,000 dollars in the second half of last year.
The money raised directly by candidates in recent state Supreme Court elections has typically been dwarfed by spending from outside groups. According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, during the last race in 2011, nearly three dozen special interest groups and the four candidates spent a combined $5.4 million. Of that total, $4.5 million came from outside groups during the last two months of the campaign between Justice David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg.
A primary will be held February 19th, which will eliminate one of the three candidates for the April general election.