The high-profile Wisconsin Supreme Court race is underway. Both Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel and Dane County Judge Susan Crawford are hitting the campaign trail for a contest this April that will again determine liberal or conservative control of the state court.
Susan Crawford is considered the liberal candidate in the state Supreme Court contest to replace retiring liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. A Crawford win would block the seven-person high court from flipping back to conservative control.
Crawford’s recent outreach has included visits to red counties like Racine, Washington, and Waukesha. Last week, at a Presbyterian church in Waukesha, Crawford spoke to roughly 100 people about growing up in Chippewa Falls, helping take care of a younger sister with special needs, and seeing her father laid off from his engineering job.
“So, my family went through a big financial crisis. I ended up financing my own college education. But through all of that, we stuck together, and all of that is what taught me my basic sense of right and wrong, and the importance of honesty and integrity,” Crawford says.
Crawford says those values have stayed with her throughout her career as an assistant state attorney general, legal counsel to then-Gov. Jim Doyle (D), private attorney, and for the past six years as a circuit judge in Dane County.
During her legal career, Crawford says she has fought for public school teachers and worked to protect voting rights. “And I represented Planned Parenthood, and their doctors, to make sure women’s access to reproductive health care services was protected,” Crawford told the audience.
A recent case brought by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul has helped restore abortion rights in Wisconsin. The current state Supreme Court is expected to uphold that access in an upcoming ruling. However, if Brad Schimel wins this April’s contest, abortion rights supporters warn that a new conservative majority could again attempt to reinstate an 1849 law banning abortion as early as this fall.
Crawford supporter Gene Szymaszek says preserving reproductive rights remains one of his key issues, just as it was when Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the state court two years ago.
“You know, Protasiewicz, Judge Protasiewicz, there was an issue about women’s right to choose. It’s still there! It’s like, you’ve heard it so many times, no, it’s still there. I think every woman in this state, if they get up in the morning, say, ‘This is who we have to be supporting,’” Szymaszek says.
Crawford says the April contest is about more than reproductive rights, noting that new legislative district maps ordered by the liberal court last year could also be at risk. In a brief interview with WUWM’s Maayan Silver, Crawford also mentioned the importance of state justices keeping a check on water polluters.
“I think all Wisconsinites want to be able to turn on their kitchen faucet and the water that’s coming out isn’t poisoning our children,” Crawford says.
The current justices are weighing a case over the regulation of human-made chemical compounds known as PFAS, found in some Wisconsin wells and surface waters.
The campaign of Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel has not responded to a request for similar access. The conservative jurist served one term as Wisconsin attorney general before losing his 2018 re-election bid, then was appointed to the circuit bench by departing Gov. Scott Walker.
Schimel has also been campaigning and recently released the first television ad of the Supreme Court contest. “I’m Brad Schimel, and justice is my life’s work—helping Wisconsin’s most vulnerable,” says part of the ad.
The first ads from Crawford’s campaign hit the airwaves Tuesday. They include a mention of Crawford’s support for abortion rights and attack Schimel for an alleged backlog of rape kit processing during his time as attorney general.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske, a distinguished professor of law at Marquette University, says the TV commercials are a key component of the race.
“Ultimately, it’s going to be about the ads. They’re already raising a great deal of money. And I suspect most people in the state will be tired of hearing their names by the time the election rolls around,” Geske tells WUWM.
Geske says candidates meeting and greeting voters is important, especially when the public has the opportunity to ask questions about the state court. But based on the 2023 general election contest between Protasiewicz and Dan Kelly, she says this year’s Supreme Court race is likely to be dominated by commercials and again cost tens of millions of dollars.
