MADISON -- One weekend after learning that a fellow Wisconsin conservative has stepped forward to challenge liberal Supreme Court Justice Louis B. Butler, another has decided not to.

Former Waukesha County prosecutor and Republican attorney general candidate Paul Bucher has dropped out of the race to unseat Butler in 2008. He said Monday he was concerned at the time about costs of a statewide campaign.

His announcement came four days after Sun Prairie attorney Charlie Schutze said he would take on Butler in next year's election. Schutze called himself a "conservative alternative" to Butler and expressed concern at the lack of conservative challengers, LNL reported yesterday.

Bucher's name began surfacing several months ago when Butler's campaign was already rolling. Bucher stoked the fires several weeks ago by declaring he was seriously considering a bid and criticizing Butler as "an activist and proud of it," LNL reported.

But Schutze's entry into the race appeared to give Bucher second thoughts. He told Steven Walters of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's AllPoliticsWatch blog he was "still recovering from the last race" in the 2006 GOP primary and expressed concern at the need to raise "millions of dollars" to remain competitive.

Butler has been campaigning all year to retail his Supreme Court seat in next April's election despite having no declared opposition for most of that time, LNL noted in July. At the beginning of that month, Butler's campaign reported raising $176,000 with $150,000 on hand so far this year.

Unlike Bucher, Schutze has never run a statewide campaign or won election as a judge despite several attempts at the municipal level. He also applied unsuccessfully for the 2004 Wisconsin Supreme Court vacancy that Democratic Gov. Doyle gave to Butler.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court race earlier this year between eventual winner Annette Ziegler and Linda Clifford cost almost $6 million in total.