1). “Wisconsin Supreme Court Election”, April 5, 2023, LIVE Last updated 8:57 a.m. E.T., New York Times, at, <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/04/us/elections/results-wisconsin-supreme-court.html> NB note - for some reason I could not make this link live so please paste into your browser if you wish to go to the source, or read below for the reprinted article.
2). “Liberal Wins Wisconsin Court Race, in Victory for Abortion Rights Backers”, April 4, 2023: Updated April 4, 2023, Reid J. Epstein, New York Times, at <https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/us/politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-protasiewicz.html>
3). “Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election is a big win for Democrats with national implications: Judge Janet Protasiewicz’s win in Wisconsin is one of the biggest election results of 2023”. April 3, Updated Apr 4, 2023, 10:10pm EDT, Ben Jacobs, VOX, at < https://www.vox.com/politics/23653403/wisconsin-supreme-court-election >
Introduction by dmorista: In the court election with the highest amount of spending on campaign advertising in U.S. history (reportedly over $55 million); the Democratic Party supported candidate Janet Protasiewicz handily defeated the reactionary Republican supported Daniel Kelly. She will now take the deciding seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court that is split 4 -3 in favor of the Liberals now. Daniel Kelly was previously a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice but was defeated in a re-election bid last year. Kelly was a supporter of the “Fake Elector” scheme promoted by Donald Trump and his operatives to try to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election. He is also an extremist on Abortion Issues a Forced Birth and Coerced Pregnancy advocate. He is also a supporter of the very heavy level of Gerrymandering in the drawing of Wisconsin election district lines that has given a large majority in the state’s U.S. House Delegation and control of both houses of the State Legislature to the Republicans. This Gerrymandering has allowed the Republicans to send 6 House members to Washington while the Democratic Party only sent 2. Honest elections and fair district boundaries would yield a 4 - 4 split or maybe even a 5 - 3 split in favor of the Democratic Party.
Wisconsin has a long history of being a leading place for producing both progressive leaders and union organizers, and for ultra-reactionaries too. Joseph Raymond McCarthy, the vicious anti-communist crusader, was the junior Senator from Wisconsin for 10 years (1947 - 1957 when he died); the John Birch Society was founded in Wisconsin; and Scott Walker the ultra-reactionary Governor who led the successful attack on Wisconsin’s Union Movement was governor for several years from 2011 - 2019. But “Fighting Bob LaFollete”, “ …. represented Wisconsin in both chambers of Congress and served as the governor of Wisconsin from 1901 to 1906”. He was a Republican for most of his political career (back when the Republicans were the more progressive of the duopoly parties). Wisconsin was also a leader in many areas of progressive political movements over the last half of the last century. The most consistent Leftist History Department in the U.S. is still located at the University of Wisconsin, at Madison.
Clearly there are limitations to what we can expect from a Liberal Supreme Court for the State of Wisconsin. But this was an important victory for the people in the entire U.S. who want to push for greater justice in our society. The Left needs to take a more realistic attitude towards interactions with the political system in the U.S. We suffered a major defeat when the Forced Birth and Coerced Pregnancy forces managed to engineer a 6 - 3 majority in the U.S. Supreme Court. And the Left must take action to reverse the damage that is doing, women are dying because of the reactionary victory in overturning Roe v. Wade. We need to push for the policies we want enacted, and then make the Liberals take action. They need to be pushed hard, like during the New Deal era when 3 leftist political parties (Communist, Socialist, and Socialist Labor), 2 strong vigorous unions (The CIO and the UAW), and a generally well-organized working class pushed hard for their goals.
One thing is clear from the Election Data provided by the New York Times article in Item 1)., “Wisconsin Supreme Court Election”, Wisconsin is not one of those places where just a few urbanized counties are Liberal or Progressive or even Leftist in their sympathies, and the entire rest of the state is a semi-fascist reactionary wasteland. The Left makes a big mistake in ceding the great bulk of the country, in geographic terms, to the far-right.
1). “Wisconsin Supreme Court Election”, April 5, 2023, LIVE Last updated 8:57 a.m. E.T., New York Times, at, <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/04/us/elections/results-wisconsin-supreme-court.html>
Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Results
Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court election carries bigger policy stakes than any other race in the country this year. It will decide whether conservatives (like Justice Kelly) or liberals (like Judge Protasiewicz) control the otherwise evenly divided court, which will determine the fate of abortion rights, gerrymandered political maps and a range of voting rights issues in the battleground state. Full results from the primary election ›
Winner
Janet Protasiewicz wins the Supreme Court race in Wisconsin.
Race called by The Associated Press.
Latest results from 2:40 AM ET >95% of votes in race called.
Map Showing County Level Results:
Tan for Protasiewicz Purple for Kelly
Table of Results Overall; by Counties in Wisconsin Supreme Court Election
Source: Election results and race calls are from The Associated Press.
Produced by Michael Andre, Neil Berg, Matthew Bloch, Irineo Cabreros, Nate Cohn, Lindsey Rogers Cook, Annie Daniel, Saurabh Datar, Andrew Fischer, Martín González Gómez, Will Houp, Aaron Krolik, Jasmine C. Lee, Ilana Marcus, Charlie Smart and Isaac White. Editing by Wilson Andrews, William P. Davis, Amy Hughes, Ben Koski and Allison McCartney.
2). “Liberal Wins Wisconsin Court Race, in Victory for Abortion Rights Backers”, April 4, 2023: Updated April 4, 2023, Reid J. Epstein, New York Times, at <https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/us/politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-protasiewicz.html>
Janet Protasiewicz prevailed in the state’s highly consequential contest for the Supreme Court, which will now be likely to reverse the state’s abortion ban and end the use of gerrymandered legislative maps.
(Caption: During her victory speech, the liberal candidate said she would treat the role with “integrity,” then was joined on stage by current members of the court. Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times) {This is a video showing action from Protasiewicz’s election night headquarters, as well as other recent political events}
Published April 4, 2023 Updated April 5, 2023, 8:28 a.m. ET
MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin voters on Tuesday chose to upend the political direction of their state by electing a liberal candidate to the State Supreme Court, flipping majority control from conservatives, according to The Associated Press. The result means that in the next year, the court is likely to reverse the state’s abortion ban and end the use of gerrymandered legislative maps drawn by Republicans.
Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal Milwaukee County judge, overwhelmingly defeated Daniel Kelly, a conservative former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who sought a return to the bench. With more than 95 percent of votes counted by Wednesday morning, Judge Protasiewicz led by 11 percentage points, a huge margin in the narrowly divided state.
“Our state is taking a step forward to a better and brighter future where our rights and freedoms will be protected,” she told jubilant supporters at her victory party in Milwaukee.
The contest, which featured over $40 million in spending, was the most expensive judicial election in American history. Early on, Democrats recognized the importance of the race for a swing seat on the top court in one of the country’s perennial political battlegrounds. Millions of dollars from out of state poured into Wisconsin to back Judge Protasiewicz, and a host of national Democratic groups rallied behind her campaign.
Judge Protasiewicz, 60, shattered long-held notions of how judicial candidates should conduct themselves by making her political priorities central to her campaign. She made explicit her support for abortion rights and called the maps, which gave Republicans near-supermajority control of the Legislature, “rigged” and “unfair.”
Her election to a 10-year term for an officially nonpartisan seat gives Wisconsin’s liberals a 4-to-3 majority on the court, which has been controlled by conservatives since 2008. Liberals will hold a court majority until at least 2025, when a liberal justice’s term expires. A conservative justice’s term ends in 2026.
As the race was called Tuesday night, the court’s three sitting liberal justices embraced at Judge Protasiewicz’s election night party in Milwaukee, as onlookers cried tears of joy. During her speech, the judge and the other three liberal justices clasped their hands together in the air in celebration.
“Today’s results mean two very important and special things,” Judge Protasiewicz said. “First, it means that Wisconsin voters have made their voices heard. They have chosen to reject partisan extremism in this state. And second, it means our democracy will always prevail.”
(Caption: Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times)
Justice Kelly, 59, evinced the bitterness of the campaign with a testy concession speech that acknowledged his defeat and portended doom for the state. He called his rival’s campaign “truly beneath contempt” and decried “the rancid slanders that were launched against me.”
“I wish that I’d be able to concede to a worthy opponent, but I do not have a worthy opponent,” Justice Kelly told supporters in Green Lake, Wis. He had not called Judge Protasiewicz by the time she delivered her victory remarks.
He concluded the final speech of his campaign by saying, “I wish Wisconsin the best of luck, because I think it’s going to need it.”
Judge Protasiewicz made a calculation from the start of the race that Wisconsin voters would reward her for making clear her positions on abortion rights and the state’s maps — issues most likely to animate and energize the base of the Democratic Party.
In an interview at her home on Tuesday before the results were known, Judge Protasiewicz (pronounced pro-tuh-SAY-witz) attributed her success on the campaign trail to the decision to inform voters of what she called “my values,” as opposed to Justice Kelly, who used fewer specifics about his positions.
“Rather than reading between the lines and having to do your sleuthing around like I think people have to do with him, I think I would rather just let people know what my values are,” she said. “We’ll see tonight if the electorate appreciates that candor or not.”
Over the last dozen years, the court has served as an important backstop for Wisconsin Republicans. It certified as constitutional Gov. Scott Walker’s early overhauls to state government, including the Act 10 law that gutted public employee unions, as well as voting restrictions like a requirement for a state-issued identification and a ban on ballot drop boxes.
In 2020, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court was the only one in the country to agree to hear President Donald J. Trump’s challenge to the presidential election. Mr. Trump sought to invalidate 200,000 ballots from the state’s two largest Democratic counties. The Wisconsin court rejected his claim on a 4-to-3 vote, with one of the conservative justices siding with the court’s three liberals on procedural grounds.
That key vote gave this year’s court race extra importance, because the justices will weigh in on voting and election issues surrounding the 2024 election. Wisconsin, where Mr. Trump’s triumph in 2016 interrupted a string of Democratic presidential victories going back to 1988, is set to again be ferociously contested.
The court has acted in Republicans’ interest on issues that have received little attention outside the state.
In 2020, a year after Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, succeeded Mr. Walker, conservative justices agreed to limit his line-item veto authority, which generations of Wisconsin governors from both parties had used. Last year, the court’s conservatives allowed a Walker appointee whose term had expired to remain in office over Mr. Evers’s objection.
Once Judge Protasiewicz assumes her place on the court on Aug. 1, the first priority for Wisconsin Democrats will be to bring a case to challenge the current legislative maps, which have given Republicans all but unbreakable control of the state government in Madison.
Jeffrey A. Mandell, the president of Law Forward, a progressive law firm that has represented Mr. Evers, said he would file a legal request for the Supreme Court to hear a redistricting case the day after Judge Protasiewicz is seated.
“Pretty much everything problematic in Wisconsin flows from the gerrymandering,” Mr. Mandell said in an interview on Tuesday. “Trying to address the gerrymander and reverse the extreme partisan gerrymandering we have is the highest priority.”
The state’s abortion ban, which was enacted in 1849, seven decades before women could vote, is already being challenged by Josh Kaul, Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general. This week, a circuit court in Dane County scheduled the first oral arguments on Mr. Kaul’s case for May 4, but whichever way a county judge rules, the case is all but certain to advance on appeal to the State Supreme Court later this year.
Dan Simmons contributed reporting from Green Lake, Wis.
Reid J. Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
A version of this article appears in print on April 5, 2023, Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: “Liberal Wins Wisconsin Court Race, in Victory for Abortion Rights Backers”.
3). “Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election is a big win for Democrats with national implications: Judge Janet Protasiewicz’s win in Wisconsin is one of the biggest election results of 2023”. April 3, Updated Apr 4, 2023, 10:10pm EDT, Ben Jacobs, VOX, at < https://www.vox.com/politics/23653403/wisconsin-supreme-court-election >
(Caption: Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates Republican-backed Dan Kelly and Democratic-supported Janet Protasiewicz participate in a debate on March 21, 2023, in Madison, Wisconsin. Morry Gash/AP Photo)
Ben Jacobs is a political reporter at Vox, based in Washington, DC. Ben has covered three presidential campaigns, as well as Capitol Hill, the White House, and the Supreme Court. His writing has appeared in publications including New York Magazine, The Atlantic, and the Washington Examiner.
Editor’s note: Judge Janet Protasiewicz has won the nonpartisan Wisconsin Supreme Court race, according to the Associated Press, giving the court a liberal majority. This story was originally published on April 3.
One of the most consequential elections of 2023 will happen on April 4 in Wisconsin. The race for an open state Supreme Court seat will determine the partisan balance of the Badger State’s highest court and either maintain the 4-seats-to-3 hold that conservatives have on the court, or the race will flip it to a liberal majority. The result could not only determine whether abortion is legal in Wisconsin after the Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, but it could also lead to a redraw of the state’s heavily gerrymandered legislative and congressional maps. New maps in Wisconsin could flip control not just of the statehouse but even of the US House of Representatives, where Republicans currently only have the slimmest majority.
Jessie Opoien is the capitol bureau chief for the Capital Times and has covered Wisconsin politics for over a decade. We spoke about the race and what it means not just in Wisconsin but nationally.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Ben Jacobs
Who is running in this race, and why is it getting so much attention?
Jessie Opoien
So the two candidates are Janet Protasiewicz, who is a Milwaukee County circuit judge, and Daniel Kelly, who is a former state Supreme Court justice. And although the race is ostensibly nonpartisan, it’s extremely influenced by partisan entities. So, again, Janet Protasiewicz is linked with Democrats and the liberal side of things. And Kelly is linked with Republicans and the conservative side of things. It’s getting so much attention because it’s one of the only huge races on a ballot anywhere this year because the ideological ballot balance of the state Supreme Court could flip in favor of liberals for the first time since 2008.
That could open the door to challenges to a number of policies that were passed by Republicans over the last 10 years. And I think, most notably, it would open the door to the court, looking at a challenge to the state’s abortion ban, which was passed in 1849 and had been unenforceable until the Dobbs decision.
Ben Jacobs
How much does redistricting come into play as well?
Jessie Opoien
Yeah, redistricting is the No. 2 issue on voters’ minds. At this point, I think abortion is definitely driving the race. The state has seen a number of challenges to its electoral map. I think it’s pretty widely agreed throughout the country that Wisconsin’s maps are among the most gerrymandered in the country. Janet Protasiewicz has certainly talked about those maps. She has said outright that they’re rigged. That’s something that the Kelly campaign has hit her on. But I think we could definitely expect, if she were to win, we could expect another challenge or a revival of one of the old challenges to make its way back to the court.
Ben Jacobs
Judicial races are nominally supposed to be nonpartisan. Is there any pretense at this point that this is removed from party politics?
Jessie Opoien
Not really; both of the candidates pretty much acknowledge that this is the way it works at this point. It’s kind of one of those things where, as a reporter, you have to note that it’s nonpartisan, and then explain that it’s really nonpartisan in name only. So I think both candidates are pretty well-linked to their respective political parties. We’re seeing both parties get pretty involved. It’s really just a difference between saying liberal and Democrat or conservative or Republican.
Ben Jacobs
So there’s a lot of money being spent in the race. How much is being spent, and who is doing it?
Jessie Opoien
Yeah, it’s huge. We’ve already surpassed the record for the most expensive judicial race in the country. ... We’ve already passed $20 million, and I’ve been hearing as high as $27 million. We are going to keep seeing that go higher and higher in the final days of the race. The Protasiewicz campaign is spending more than Kelly, who is relying a little bit more on outside groups. But we’re just seeing so much money flooding in from groups that have an interest in this race.
Ben Jacobs
You mentioned this has been a major ideological battle, but how much is this about the personalities of the two candidates?
Jessie Opoien
Yeah, I think this is probably the most that we’ve seen a judicial candidate talk about their personal values or their personal beliefs on the trail. We’ve definitely seen candidates do it in the past, but not to this degree. Janet Protasiewicz is very open about her support for abortion access and very open about believing that the maps are rigged.
Daniel Kelly isn’t out there with his personal opinions in that way. But you can certainly look at the work that he’s done in the past, and the fact that he’s worked with the Republican Party to get a sense of what his personal beliefs are. [Kelly and Protasiewicz] differ pretty strongly on whether it’s appropriate for a judge to share those beliefs. They both do acknowledge that judges are humans, and they do have beliefs. But yeah, I do think personality is coming into it a fair amount, at least in terms of just how much they’re willing to share of themselves or not.
Ben Jacobs
You mentioned that the big issue is the state abortion ban. Why is that an issue for the courts and not the legislature?
Jessie Opoien
So we have a Republican majority in the state legislature here that’s pretty well-entrenched, and will be for some time. And we have a Democrat in the governor’s office, which means [they are] kind of at an impasse on any changes to the state’s law. So the law that we have right now was passed in 1849, and it bans abortion in all cases, except for a pretty vaguely defined life of the mother exemption.
At the legislative level, some Republicans had said they would like to pass a bill adding exceptions for rape and incest cases; the governor, Tony Evers, has said he would not sign anything that keeps that ban in place. So that’s a no-go for him, even though it would loosen up the law a little bit. So nothing’s going to happen at the legislative level as long as the partisan balance remains what it is. In the meantime, the state’s Democratic attorney general has filed a lawsuit ... so that case is definitely going to make its way to the state Supreme Court. And it is likely the only way in the near future that we would see any changes to the state abortion policy.
Ben Jacobs
So at this point, is the only way anything major can happen is via the state judicial system and ultimately the state Supreme Court?
Jessie Opoien
Yeah, very much. So those of us who cover politics here, we have a saying of how a bill becomes a lawsuit. And that’s just how it works in a lot of cases here because it is the only way that you’re going to get an outcome that differs from that gridlock. In the past, when there was Republican control of all branches of government, that was the only way for Democrats to potentially challenge any of those things.
Ben Jacobs
So Wisconsin is a key swing state in presidential elections and has a Senate race coming up in 2024. Is there anything we can learn about 2024 from this election?
Jessie Opoien
I think on a practical level, you can’t ignore the possibility that the state Supreme Court will be involved in either the way those elections are run or potentially litigation afterward. If you look back at what happened in 2020, the state Supreme Court was pretty important in Donald Trump’s challenges to the outcome here. So that element of it, I think, is important.
I think Wisconsin is going to continue to be one of those top three to five states that people are paying attention to, and spending time on and pouring money into.
Ben Jacobs
Is there a broader lesson nationally from this as well?
Jessie Opoien
Wisconsin is somewhat interesting ... if you look at our state as a whole, it looks much redder than the other results would indicate. You’re seeing kind of liberal powerhouses in particular areas [of the state], but I think overall, just the closeness of the races here probably is a reflection brought more broadly of how closely divided the country is. I think seeing what works here — thus far, abortion has worked for Democrats and liberals. This might be a test, to find out how much [abortion] is going to continue to play in races throughout the country, depending on the outcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment