Eric Toney
Lawyer
Republican
Fond du Lac
Elected Experience
Fond du Lac district attorney (2012-present)
Q&A with the Candidate
Why should voters elect you to be attorney general?
When I survived open heart surgery at 39 years old, I reflected on my life and didn't have any regrets. I love helping keep people safe, and I've done that for nearly 14 years as the district attorney in Fond du Lac County, where I was born and raised. I was named Wisconsin's 2024 District Attorney of the Year. As past president of the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association, I worked with the Republican Legislature and a Democratic Governor to secure crime lab positions, internet crimes against children DOJ positions, over 50 new prosecutors where they were needed most, and increased resources for prosecutors and public defenders. I'd be honored to take my bipartisan record to our DOJ and put public safety over politics.
Why should voters not elect your opponent?
Josh Kaul's record is filled with broken promises, but he's asking for a third term. He promised to improve forensic testing. Instead, the crime labs are slower than under his predecessor, and the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau documented that he failed to fill lab positions, including DNA analysts. He's testing fewer items — with DNA turnaround times taking twice as long — despite more staff and resources. He promised rape kit convictions, and after $9.5 million spent and over 4,000 kits tested, he's gotten fewer than 15 convictions in nearly eight years. He promised to confront the drug crisis, but he eliminated drug investigators in northern Wisconsin, which the tribes say is unnecessarily costing lives. Wisconsin cannot afford four more years of broken promises.
What are your top accomplishments in your current office?
I've always put public safety over politics. That's why I've fought to get additional crime lab and crimes against children positions added to the DOJ. I'm proud of the bipartisan team I've built in my office — including former Democrat and Republican district attorneys. I've held Wisconsin's most dangerous criminals accountable, in cases ranging from homicide to human trafficking. I helped establish Fond du Lac County's first Drug Court and chaired an Opioid Coalition to fight addiction at its source. As president of the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association, I worked across both parties to secure increased resources for prosecutors and public defenders, additional crime lab positions, and over 50 new prosecutor positions where need was greatest. My colleagues named me 2024 District Attorney of the Year.
What should be the top priorities of the Department of Justice?
First, the Department of Justice needs leadership that will put public safety over politics. That means an immediate priority is to fix the crime labs. I'll support the great lab analysts, end misguided policies that limit law enforcement's ability to have items tested, end work from home for analysts that takes them away from the lab, and ensure we're filling the vacant positions we learned about in the nonpartisan audit. Second, confront the drug crisis by empowering public safety leaders to aggressively prosecute drug crimes and restoring the narcotics agents northern Wisconsin lost under Kaul. Third, target violent crime in Milwaukee — a safer Milwaukee means a safer Wisconsin. Fourth, back victims, survivors, and law enforcement in all 72 counties by putting public safety over politics.