Elon Musk's election cash giveaway sparks lawsuit — and lands in lap of judge running
A random coincidence resulted in a lawsuit against tech billionaire Elon Musk for interfering in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race, being assigned to one of the judges running in that exact race — though she has made clear she will bow out of hearing the lawsuit due to ethics concerns.
The race pits Trump-aligned candidate Brad Schimel against Democratic-aligned candidate Susan Crawford and is poised to decide whether liberals maintain their majority on the Wisconsin high court. Liberals have turned to the court to undo longtime GOP gerrymanders of the state legislature and could ultimately follow up by redrawing the heavily GOP-skewing congressional maps as well.
Musk's America PAC, which has spent millions on ads in favor of Schimel, announced this week they would give out $100 to people who sign his petition against "activist judges," and Musk followed up by revealing he would travel to Wisconsin and hand out two $1 million checks to a pair of random people who vote in the Wisconsin judicial election. It's a similar scheme to America PAC's controversial cash giveaways to swing-state voters in the 2024 election.
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Musk swiftly clarified the checks would be awarded to people who signed his petition, as paying people to vote in an election is illegal even without explicitly ordering them to vote a certain way. However, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, who himself previously defeated Schimel for that office in 2018, announced he would sue to stop Musk's scheme, based on Musk's initial statement that the checks would be handed out "in appreciation for you taking the time to vote."
Now, in new a twist in the saga, the case filed in Dane County Circuit Court has been randomly assigned to Crawford herself, who sits as a judge on that court.
According to WTMJ, Crawford immediately recused herself from the case, with Judge David Conway instead now set to hear it.