Two Wisconsin Campaign Rivals Joining Forces to Request Increased Criminal Justice Funding

Thursday, June 8th, 2023 -- 1:00 PM

(By Sarah Lehr, Wisconsin Public Radio) Two former campaign rivals are joining forces to advocate for increased criminal justice funding, as lawmakers prepare to vote on a budget for Wisconsin's Department of Justice. 

According to Sarah Leher with Wisconsin Public Radio, Democratic Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and his 2022 challenger Eric Toney, a Republican, are asking lawmakers to fund 16 additional employees to staff state crime labs.

That includes the addition of 10 toxicologists, four DNA analysts and two additional crime scene response specialists, who are called to investigate the premises of major crimes, such as homicides. More robust staffing will allow the labs to turn around results more quickly when police departments request tests for things like DNA matching or the presence of alcohol or illegal drugs.

That in turn can allow officials to schedule court dates more quickly, so cases can be resolved.  Toney, who serves as Fond du Lac County's district attorney, criticized Kaul's oversight of the labs when Toney ran unsuccessfully to unseat the attorney general last year.

But on Tuesday, Toney spoke on behalf of the Wisconsin District Attorney's Association and urged lawmakers to support Kaul's crime lab budget request. His calls were echoed by Wisconsin's Public Defender’s Office, its State Court Office and the Association of State Prosecutors, which lobbies for the interests of assistant district attorneys in Wisconsin.

That same coalition joined forces recently to successfully push for raises for assistant public defenders and assistant district attorneys. Criminal justice leaders said higher pay would help counter a staffing shortage of public attorneys that the State Bar Association has described as approaching a "constitutional crisis."

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