Decide Janet Protasiewicz, who received the Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom seat Tuesday, greets attendees at her election evening occasion Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wis.
Angela Main/WPR
cover caption
toggle caption
Angela Main/WPR
Decide Janet Protasiewicz, who received the Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom seat Tuesday, greets attendees at her election evening occasion Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wis.
Angela Main/WPR
MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Democrats have scored a serious off-year election victory in Wisconsin, successful the state’s open supreme courtroom seat and flipping management of the courtroom to liberals for the primary time in 15 years.
Milwaukee County Decide Janet Protasiewicz received the hotly contested race for the Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom, in accordance with a race name by The Related Press, defeating former state Supreme Courtroom Justice Dan Kelly. Spending within the marketing campaign shattered the earlier nationwide report for a state supreme courtroom election.
The win by Protasiewicz comes at a pivotal time for the courtroom, and for the Democratic voters who carried her to workplace. Justices are all however sure to listen to a problem to Wisconsin’s pre-Civil Warfare abortion ban, and with a liberal majority, they’re more likely to take into account a lawsuit that might overturn Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn legislative maps.
Barring the sudden, the victory additionally assures that liberals will maintain a majority on the courtroom forward of subsequent yr’s presidential election, when Wisconsin — the perennial swing state — is predicted to once more be pivotal within the race for the White Home. If election lawsuits are filed in state courtroom, Protasiewicz shall be one of many seven justices who’ve the ultimate say.
Democrats’ excessive hopes
Ought to the courtroom redraw the maps and provides Democrats a greater probability of successful races for the legislature, they hope they might lastly push the state’s political trajectory to the left. The courtroom may additionally doubtlessly redraw Wisconsin’s congressional map, the place Republicans presently maintain six out of eight U.S Home seats in an in any other case 50-50 state.
Protasiewicz was born and raised on Milwaukee’s south aspect, spending 25 years as a prosecutor within the Milwaukee County District Legal professional’s workplace and many of the final decade as a choose.
Whereas she by no means promised to rule a method or one other on instances that come earlier than the Supreme Courtroom, Protasiewicz was particularly open about her politics throughout the marketing campaign. On the difficulty of abortion, she mentioned she believed ladies have a proper to decide on. When it got here to redistricting, she known as the state’s Republican-drawn legislative maps “rigged.”
Her marketing campaign additionally relied greater than any in historical past on the Democratic Celebration of Wisconsin’s monetary help, a lot in order that Protasiewicz vowed to recuse herself from instances involving the state get together as soon as she takes workplace.
Kelly’s loss and the cash
Kelly downplayed his political beliefs, however he introduced a protracted Republican resume to the race. He was initially appointed to the courtroom by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2016. Most of Kelly’s profession was spent as an lawyer. In 2012, he defended Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn legislative maps in federal courtroom. In 2020, after Kelly misplaced his first election, he returned to non-public apply, the place his purchasers included each the state and nationwide Republican events.
Kelly’s largest monetary backers included Wisconsin Producers and Commerce and a gaggle known as Truthful Courts America, which is funded by GOP megadonor Richard Uihlein. Collectively, they spent greater than $10 million on advertisements criticizing sentences handed down by Protasiewicz as a choose in Milwaukee County.
Whereas cash from Kelly and conservative teams got here in heavy throughout the closing weeks of the marketing campaign, Protasiewicz was capable of counter with a fundraising haul that was beforehand unprecedented in a judicial race, elevating greater than $14 million this yr. The majority of that cash got here in transfers from the state Democratic Celebration.
The race shattered the earlier nationwide report for spending in a state Supreme Courtroom race. Based on the Brennan Middle for Justice, the outdated report of $15.2 million was set in a 2004 race for the Illinois Supreme Courtroom. Based on the middle’s monitoring, practically $29 million had been spent on political advertisements in Wisconsin’s race. One other operating tally by the Wisconsin political information web site WisPolitics discovered complete spending on the race had hit $45 million.
Protasiewicz will take workplace on Aug. 1 for a time period that runs till 2033. Barring the sudden, the subsequent probability conservatives need to flip the courtroom again shall be in 2025.
