March 28 (UPI) — Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul on Friday sued Elon Musk for his plan to pay two people $1 million each for voting in the state’s Supreme Court race.
Musk, who runs the Department of Government Efficiency, donated $277 million to return Donald Trump to the White House. His political action committee offered to pay $1 million a day to voters in six battleground states, including Wisconsin, who signed a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments.
Wisconsin is considered a “purple state” with one U.S. senator representing each party. There is a Democratic Party governor but the Republican Party controls both chambers of the state legislature.
Kaul, a Democrat elected in 2019, is seeking a restraining order to halt the giveaway.
“The Wisconsin Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that elections in Wisconsin are safe, secure, free, and fair,” Kaul said in a statement to The Hill and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We are aware of the offer recently posted by Elon Musk to award a million dollars to two people at an event in Wisconsin this weekend.
“Based on our understanding of applicable Wisconsin law, we intend to take legal action today to seek a court order to stop this from happening.”
Musk, who is worth $347.7 billion, according to Forbes, planned on Sunday to speak with voters and hand cash in support of Republican Brad Schimel, a judge in Waukea County, for the open seat.
Kaul’s case was randomly assigned to Schimel’s rival, Democrat Susan Crawford, a judge in Dane County. A spokesperson for Crawford told The Hill she will recuse herself from the case.
“Wisconsinites don’t want a billionaire like Musk telling them who to vote for, and on Tuesday, voters should reject Musk’s lackey Brad Schimel,” Crawford’s spokesman Derrick Honeyman said.
Schimel did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Journal Sentinel.
The election is Tuesday with Democrats holding a 4-3 edge. Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, a liberal judge, announced last year that she will not seek re-election, leaving the majority up for grabs.
On Friday, Musk posted a clarification on his X platform: “To clarify a previous post, entrance is limited to those who have signed the petition in opposition to activist judges. I will also hand over checks for a million dollars to 2 people to be spokesmen for the petition.
Wisconsin officials say Musk’s new plans still conflict with Wisconsin state law, which says that anyone who “offers, gives, lends or promises to give or lend, or endeavors to procure, anything of value, or any office or employment or any privilege or immunity to, or for, any elector, or to or for any other person, in order to induce any elector to” go or not go to the polls, or vote or not vote, is illegal.
More than $47.4 million has been spent so far for the race, which is the most for a judicial race in the United States.
Musk personally has donated $3 million this year to the state Republican Party.
About $31.4 million had been spent on pro-Schimel campaigning through two Political Action Committees backed by Musk. Crawford has raised about $16 million.
Musk did not reveal where in Wisconsin he will speak, and it’s unclear how he will determine that someone did or didn’t vote in the election, but the money he is to award is connected to the online “Petition in Opposition to Activist Judges” that Musk’s America PAC has circulated.
The petition states that those who sign are “rejecting the actions of activist judges who impose their own views and demanding a judiciary that respects its role,” which the document defines as “interpreting, not legislating.”
The petition also offers $100 to registered voters of Wisconsin who fill out the online petition, and those who refer petition signers get another $100 for each referred person.
However, while nowhere in the online petition’s terms and conditions or anywhere in the body of its writing does it say there’s an opportunity to win a million dollars, the America PAC posted to X Wednesday that “Scott A. From Green Bay” was the “first $1 million spokesperson for signing our Petition in Opposition to Activist Judges.”
That winner has since been identified as Scott Ainsworth from Green Bay, Wisc., who said in a video posted to America PAC’s X page Friday that “everyone should do what I did-sign the petition, refer your friends, get out and vote early for Brad Schimel.”
Meanwhile, the winner of the second million dollars has not yet been identified. As for Ainsworth, he went on to thank Musk in his video post and added that he’s possibly taking “a weekend trip down to Chicago and staying at Trump Tower.”