Bysiewicz On Supreme Court, Garber, and Politics

The state supreme court ruled last week that Bysiewicz didn’t have the necessary 10 years of active legal practice to qualify her for the role of attorney general.  In a Monday appearance on WNPR’s the Colin McEnroe Show, Bysiewicz said she had researched the law before it became an issue and was satisfied that she met the necessary requirements

 

The Democrat also suggested that partisan politics may have played a role.

 

“This is a stunning decision and I can’t wait to see what the supreme court used as a basis for finding that the lawyering that I do somehow didn’t count. You know, in retrospect, I think you know that court was made up of two decades of Republican appointees. So, I don’t know, I have to see the decision.”

 

Bysiewicz said she wasn’t angry about the court decision, but that she was shocked and unprepared for it. She also spoke about the candidacy of Republican Ross Garber for the seat she once wanted.  Garber is married to her sister, and he announced his candidacy last week.   McEnroe asked her how she found out Garber was running.

 

McEnroe: Did he call up and say, okay, now I’m doing it?

 

Bysiewicz: No my sister called me and said she was about to kill him but that he was running for attorney general.  Oh, I’m voting Democratic. Absolutely.” 

 

Bysiewicz also said she was the victim of her own success as an aggressive female politician.

 

“I think that when you have strong men, people say, oh they’re a leader. They’re a statesman. And when you have a strong, confident, ambitious woman, they don’t say she’s a leader, she’s a statesperson.  They say she’s a bitch.”

 

Bysiewicz’s will serve as secretary of the state until January.  She wouldn't say much about her future political plans, except to say that she’d like to take a vacation before the primaries later this summer.

 

For WNPR, I’m Jeff Cohen.