Prosser: Victory Speech

UPDATE: Here's the full video of Justice Prosser's victory speech.


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Video, from the MacIver Institute:



More on Justice Prosser's victory, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Justice David Prosser and his campaign are saying a recount of this month's election is unwarranted and would be costly for taxpayers.

"Admittedly the election was uncomfortably close," Prosser said at a Capitol news conference. "My opponent ran a very effective campaign. But now that all 72 counties have completed their canvasses, the result of the election is not in doubt."

...Prosser spoke for 25 minutes, but did not take questions. Troupis and other advisers addressed the media afterward.

"I presume this is my last campaign and that my fifteen minutes of celebrity will soon be over. Greta has stopped calling," said Prosser, referring to Fox News host Greta Van Susteren.

Prosser, 68, would be seated for a new 10-year term on the court on Aug. 1.

...Prosser said his election could have gone either way and that his ultimate victory was "an affirmation of my 30-plus years of public service."

He called for continuing to elect judges, amid cries from some to appoint the judicary. "Wisconsinites should not surrender this important right because of periodic frustrations about the messiness of democracy," he said.

Prosser also criticized an ad against him by the liberal Greater Wisconsin Committee that attacked him for his handling of a priest sex abuse case when he was Outagamie County district attorney more than 30 years ago.

"The blowback from that advertising helped to assure my re-election," he said. "The people of Wisconsin are too smart and too decent to base their votes on personal smears."

The victims in that case, Troy and Todd Merryfield, appeared in another third-party ad to support Prosser. The justice thanked them by name Monday, saying he had not talked to them in 33 years but hoped to do so soon.

Prosser also thanked GOP former Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, who first appointed Prosser to the court in 1998 and this year served as the honorary chairman of his campaign.

He further thanked three colleagues on the court - Justices Patience Roggensack, Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman. He singled out Gableman, calling him "tireless, indefatigable and brilliant."