For those folks watching the run-up to the 2024 presidential race, perhaps attention should shift to what is shaping up to be the most critical election of 2023 – for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. As the April 4 election looms, conservatives and liberals are furiously raising money; rallying the party faithful for donations. The critical swing state hangs in the balance on abortion rights, voter identification, and redistricting.
The candidates – Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly – will either solidify the court’s current conservative majority or flip it entirely. It’s open season after Justice Patience Roggensack’s retirement, leaving her spot up for grabs.
Wisconsin progressives, as the candidacy of Protasiewicz demonstrates, want abortion rights legal under any circumstances and what opponents consider a lackadaisical style of elections, including no ID and mail-in ballots.
For voters in the state, the election results could be as controversial as the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.
Why Now, Wisconsin?
The balance of power has slowly eroded over the last decade during Republican Governor Scott Walker’s time at the helm. Walker lost reelection during the 2018 “blue wave” but believes the stakes are higher than ever. Speaking to National Review, the former governor, when asked what was on the line, bluntly stated: “In a word, it’s everything.”
Walker went on to tout accomplishments he had made that may be soon lost in a progressive-fueled court and the executive branch. One such triumph he used was the passage of Act 10: the collective bargaining, compensation, retirement, health insurance, and sick leave of public sector employees. According to Walker, it saved the state $15 billion in tax relief to be used elsewhere:
“The most important thing we did with Act 10 was take the power out of the hands of a handful of union bosses and put it into the hands of the taxpayers and the people they duly elect… Those things have saved millions and millions of dollars that schools were then able to reinvest into the classroom — in some cases rewarding exceptional teachers.”
Tony Evers (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
But there is also the other side of the coin: Democratic Governor Tony Evers can’t seem to get anything done with the Republican supermajority in the legislature. So being at loggerheads now for three years, the court has emerged as the defacto decision maker on most divisive issues.
Will Money Talk?
The race is expected to be the costliest court election of all time. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the previous record was over $15 million for a 2004 Illinois contest. Compare apples to apples: $10.5 million has already been spent in the primary. In the sprint to election day, money flows in from the usual sources: Planned Parenthood, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, GOP megadonor Richard Uihlein, and anyone who wants to change the outcome in April.
“This election is off the charts,” said Ben Wikler, chair of the state Democratic Party to Politico. “It’s off the charts in terms of the stakes, it’s off the charts in terms of how much money is likely to be invested on both sides, it’s off the charts in terms of the number of people who are voting.”
Wikler’s counterpart, Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state Republican Party, is on the same page: “I think we are going to see high turnout from both sides, and why wouldn’t we? Everything is on the line.”
