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The Republican Party of Wisconsin made 100,000 last-minute automated phone calls in recent days urging residents to vote for Michael Gableman in the officially non-partisan race for the state Supreme Court.

Party spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski confirmed Monday that party chairman Reince Preibus recorded the call backing Gableman, the Burnett County Circuit Court judge. Gableman is trying to unseat Justice Louis Butler, who was appointed to the court in 2004 by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.

"Once we saw (the Wisconsin Education Association Council) and Gov. Doyle working on Butler's behalf, we thought we couldn't stand back any more," Kukowski said. "We need to tell the voters who the conservative choice was."

Doyle has endorsed Butler and was the host of a campaign fundraiser March 24 in Madison. WEAC ran a TV commercial on behalf of Butler, but Butler said he asked the group to withdraw the ad and to stay out of the race.

Kukowski said the calls went out over the weekend statewide but were concentrated in southeastern Wisconsin. Gableman has worked primarily in northern and central Wisconsin as a prosecutor and judge; Butler's experience includes 25 years as a public defender and judge in Milwaukee County.

Kukowski said Gableman's campaign, which is headed by former RPW executive director Darrin Schmitz, didn't request the assistance, which will be declared as an in-kind contribution to the campaign.

"It was definitely our decision to do, and we had the resources to put it out," Kukowski said.

Kukowski couldn't immediately say how much the calls cost. However, Brandon Gregoire, spokesman for GOPCalls.com in Roswell, N.M., which specializes in automated political phone calls, said his company charges 3.5 cents to 3.9 cents per call, or $3,500 to $3,900 for 100,000 calls.

Voice and e-mail messages left with Schmitz and the Gableman campaign weren't immediately returned Monday afternoon.

Butler campaign spokeswoman Erin Celello said Gableman's "aligning himself so closely with a political party" raises questions about his impartiality.

"Judges should be fair, neutral, and unbiased in every case - and this race should be nonpartisan," Celello said.

This isn't the first time the Republican Party of Wisconsin has weighed in on a nonpartisan state Supreme Court race. In 2000, the campaign of incumbent Justice Diane Sykes got $7,895 worth of in-kind contributions from the state Republican Party. And in 1997, incumbent Justice Jon Wilcox's campaign received $2,500 worth of in-kind contributions from the party, reports show.

The Code of Judicial Conduct warns judges and judicial candidates not to align themselves with any political party. However, the Wisconsin Judicial Commission has never publicly disciplined any Wisconsin judge for partisan activities.