Here & Now

Wisconsin's 2022 Republican Primary for Attorney General

Frederica Freyberg:

The August 9 primary election quickly approaches and two GOP candidates are vying to be the nominee to take on Democratic incumbent Attorney General Josh Kaul. Senior political reporter Zac Schultz has this story on the Republican candidates.

Zac Schultz:

The Office of Attorney General is frequently referred to as Wisconsin’s top cop. Republican Eric Toney says his ten years as Fond du Lac County district attorney have prepared him for the role.

Eric Toney:

I kind of like to say I’ve had the misfortune of prosecuting almost every case you can think of.

Zac Schultz:

Toney said he decided to run after the Jacob Blake shooting in August of 2020 led to riots in Kenosha. He said the incumbent AG, democratic Josh Kaul didn’t publicly support the police officer who shot Blake.

Eric Toney:

And to have an attorney general that’s not standing with our law enforcement, I could not sit back and watch that continue, and that’s what got me ultimately in this race for attorney general.

Zac Schultz:

Ironically, it was Toney’s candidacy that led his primary opponent, Republican Adam Jarchow, to enter the race.

Adam Jarchow:

I’m the only candidate in this race with the depth and breadth of experience to one day one immediately walk into that office and be able to handle every single one of the issues that would come before the AG.

Zac Schultz:

Jarchow previously served in the state Assembly but was out of office in 2021 when he started saying a conservative candidate needed to challenge Toney for the nomination.

Adam Jarchow:

Having a robust primary where issues are vetted, where candidates are vetted is incredibly important, and when you add to that that my primary opponent, Eric Toney, helped enforce Governor Evers’ illegal lockdown order by prosecuting small business owners.

Zac Schultz:

Toney says he never actually prosecuted anyone for not obeying the lockdown orders in the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eric Toney:

My primary opponent has attacked me relentlessly for COVID where my job is to follow the rule of law. Even when president Trump was supporting those safe-at-home efforts during the first 13 days, we had filed a small number of cases but I used my discretion to dismiss all of them because it was the right thing to do, and then when that illegal extended safe-at-home order came out in April, we didn’t enforce it at all here in Fond du Lac County.

Zac Schultz:

Toney says it’s his experience as a district attorney that sets him apart considering nearly every attorney general in state history has prosecutorial experience.

Eric Toney:

Voters will look at our top cop and they want someone that has that experience prosecuting, being in the trenches with our law enforcement, and I’m the only candidate that has actually done that.

Zac Schultz:

The third candidate in this primary is Republican Karen Miller, an attorney from Chippewa Falls. She did not respond to multiple requests for an interview. As for prosecuting experience, Jarchow says times are changing and it’s his experience that matters more.

Adam Jarchow:

As we’ve looked at the way the role of the attorney general has expanded all around the country, we see fewer and fewer prosecutors being elected to that office. That kind of was the old model. The new model really is people from the private sector or who have legislative experience because so much of what you do as attorney general is manage a huge agency.

Zac Schultz:

The attorney general has always been a partisan office, but Wisconsin voters have previously voted for a governor of one party and an AG of the other. But in the last decade, AGs across the country have become more active, challenging state and federal laws, acting in concert with their political parties.

Adam Jarchow:

It’s increasingly important because we’re in an era of unchecked power of the federal government and our own bureaucracy here in the state of Wisconsin, and so you have to understand that the role of the AG can be to rein in the federal government.

Zac Schultz:

Toney says there are limits to partisanship in office.

Eric Toney:

I’m going to follow the rule of law, and the rule of law is not always popular.

Zac Schultz:

Toney points to the current debate among Republican voters about the validity of the 2020 presidential election.

Eric Toney:

We have not seen any court here in Wisconsin make a determination of fraud to some level that could have had an impact on the 2020 presidential election here in Wisconsin.

Zac Schultz:

There was no widespread fraud that impacted the outcome of the election, but Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories have many Republicans convinced the election can be overturned.

Eric Toney:

We cannot decertify the election. There is no way to do it and I have talked about this all across Wisconsin. I have these discussions. I have this dialogue. That’s where the Republican Party is at. That’s why I received the overwhelming endorsement vote at our state convention because I’m willing to be up front and tell people the truth, not just when it’s popular.

Zac Schultz:

Jarchow says the key to convincing Republican voters the election was fair is to elect Republicans.

Adam Jarchow:

If we can secure our elections, which I believe we will do when we have a Republican governor and a Republican AG, that will restore faith in our election process.

Zac Schultz:

The winner of this primary will face Josh Kaul in the general election. And Toney says voters should consider electability. In 2018, Jarchow ran for state Senate in the special election and lost a seat that hadn’t voted for Democrats in decades and flipped back to Republicans the very next election.

Eric Toney:

If you can’t win that seat, you cannot win Wisconsin. Even at the state convention, his own county voted to support me. The people that know him best rejected him.

Zac Schultz:

Jarchow says the special election was a fluke in a strong year for Democrats. The opposite of what he expects for 2022.

Adam Jarchow:

Their base turned out and ours didn’t in a very low turnout special election. I don’t think that’s indicative at all of, you know, the kind of candidate that I’ve historically been, winning my Assembly seat by wide margins, and certainly not indicative of how we will thump Josh Kaul.

Zac Schultz:

Reporting from Madison, I’m Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”