Former Democratic Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager says big pharmaceutical companies want conservative Annette Ziegler on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Lautenschlager, who was voted from office in 2006 after a DUI scandal, said Annette Ziegler owns "a minimum of $265,000 in pharmaceutical company stock," WRN Radio reported. She added that the state currently has 38 cases against drug companies.

Lautenschlager called a news conference yesterday evening in her new role as State Chairwoman of the newly formed Democratic Judicial Campaign Committee. With her were Democratic State Representatives Chuck Benedict, Mike Sheridan, Marlin Schneider and Gary Sherman.

Now an attorney in Madison, Lautenschlager believes "big pharma" is behind a recent series of pro-Ziegler ads and has already spent "hundreds of thousands of dollars" on Ziegler's candidacy.

"The corporate interests of some sort - likely pharmeceutical companies - are attempting to buy this election," she said.

She says Ziegler has already shown a willingness to ignore financial conflicts of interest as a judge. "Ziegler has a personal financial stake in the monetary success of pharmaceutical companies," Lautenschlager said.

Lautenschlager is so sure that drug-makers want Ziegler on the Supreme Court that she told reporters: "I would put my house, my husband, my children and my dog on it, OK?"

Ziegler, a conservative District Court Judge, is running for the Wisconsin Supreme Court against Madison attorney Linda Clifford, considered a liberal. The election to succeed conservative Justice Jon P. Wilcox will be held early next month.

Madison law firm Lawton & Cates earlier this week announced it had hired Lautenschlager and her former deputy attorney general Dan Bach as civil-litigation specialists, LegalNewsLine recently reported. They will also do some political-law work but Lautenschlager has said she will not lobby.

Ziegler started the Supreme Court race last month with a big lead over Clifford but the margin has narrowed in recent weeks with accusations that Ziegler did not declare conflicts of interest in many case.