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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Supreme Court Justice, first statewide election in 2018 midterm

    Some see bitter Wisconsin race as next midterm barometer


    SCOTT BAUER
    ,Associated PressApril 1, 2018



    1 / 2 FILE - In this June. 1, 2017, file photo, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge and Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate, Rebecca Dallet poses for a photo in Madison, Wis. The battle for a supposedly nonpartisan seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court is a partisan-driven slugfest that both sides see as a possible harbinger of voter attitudes heading into the fall midterms. Sensing that a victory in Tuesday's election could be a momentum-builder, a bevy of national Democrats has endorsed Rebecca Dallet, a Milwaukee County judge, over her opponent Michael Screnock, a judge appointed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer, File) More

    MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Eric Holder came to town to campaign for the liberal candidate, and his group dumped $165,000 into the race. Joe Biden, Corey Booker and Gabby Giffords endorsed her, and more money came from a fundraiser in San Francisco.

    Meanwhile, Wisconsin Republicans poured in $400,000 to support the conservative candidate, the state's largest business group tripled that and the National Rifle Association publicly backed him.


    The race drawing so much heat isn't for Senate or even Congress. It's for Wisconsin Supreme Court — a supposedly nonpartisan office that is the latest election to be treated as a barometer of voter attitudes heading into the fall midterms.


    "As the first statewide race in the nation, this is our chance to set the tone for 2018," read an invitation to the San Francisco fundraiser for Rebecca Dallet, the liberal-leaning Milwaukee judge. A Dallet win "is a critical first step in proving our values can prevail in swing states across the country," it added.


    Dallet faces Michael Screnock, a county judge who was appointed by GOP Gov. Scott Walker and has received Walker's endorsement, in Tuesday's election.


    Conservatives are trying to keep their 5-2 majority on a high court that has been a reliable ally for Walker and his legislative agenda. The court upheld Walker's signature 2011 law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers and more recently stopped a secretive probe into Walker and conservative groups over alleged illegal campaign coordination.


    Democrats feel emboldened after a surprise win in January for a state Senate seat held by a Republican for 17 years in a district Donald Trump won by 14 points. Democrats hope to keep the momentum going with a Dallet win ahead of two special legislative elections this summer.


    "It seems like people are looking everywhere for signs of what may happen in November," said Douglas Keith, an attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice, which tracks spending on court races nationwide. "I have no doubt whatever the outcome of this race, that's how people will talk about it afterward."


    Wisconsin's Supreme Court elections have been expensive and partisan battles for more than a decade. Spending on TV ads in the race likely will end up around $4.5 million, about what was spent on the 2016 race, according to the Brennan Center.


    While there's no doubt that Democrats this year are more energized than Republicans, it's dubious whether one election can be an accurate bellwether of what's to come in November, said Ryan Owens, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin who heads the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership.


    The race's predictive ability for the November midterms could be tempered by low turnout. In seven contested elections for Supreme Court since 2000, average turnout was 21.5 percent — less than half of the 50 percent average for the past four midterm elections.


    Mark Graul, a Republican strategist, pointed to Supreme Court elections in 2007 and 2008 where conservative candidates won, victories that came in between huge Democratic wins in the fall 2006 and 2008 elections.


    "These Supreme Court races always come down to the candidate. In general, the candidate with the better profile wins every time," Graul said.


    Dallet, 48, has run as a tough-on-crime judge, focusing on her 11 years of experience as a prosecutor followed by 10 years working as a judge in Milwaukee. She's argued the conservative-controlled court is "broken," and she's criticized the justices for not adopting a recusal rule forcing them to step down from cases involving large campaign donors.


    Screnock, 48, has branded Dallet a hypocrite for taking donations from attorneys arguing cases before her court in Milwaukee, something state law permits.

    Dallet argues those donations, which totaled about $21,000, are small in comparison to the roughly $1.3 million being spent by the Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce to help Screnock. He's declined to promise to step aside in cases involving the chamber.


    He's also refused to promise to step aside in abortion-related cases, although he was twice arrested for blocking access to a Madison abortion clinic during his college days in the 1980s.


    Screnock has said he's devoted to the rule of law and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. He argues that his experience overseeing the finances in Ashland and running city government in Washburn and Reedsburg, together with his nearly nine years' experience as a private practice attorney before Walker appointed him in 2015, sets him apart from Dallet.

    As an attorney, Screnock defended Walker's collective bargaining law and political boundary maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature that are now subject to a U.S. Supreme Court case alleging they amount to unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering.


    The winner of Tuesday's election will be on the state court during the next round of redistricting that follows the 2020 census.


    https://www.yahoo.com/news/see-bitter-wisconsin-race-next-midterm-barometer-140521935.html
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  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Wisconsin’s Supreme Court Election Is Going To Be A Barnburner

    By Ed Kilgore

    Center-left candidate Rebecca Dallet and conservative Michael Screnock will face off next week in a technically nonpartisan election for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat.


    Scott Walker’s fight with his state’s judiciary over his efforts to avoid two state legislative special elections — which he has now abandoned— hasn’t been the only Wisconsin news involving judges or elections. Next Tuesday voters will decide a contest for a position on the state’s Supreme Court, and it looks to be an unlikely barnburner.


    It’s actually a regular, not a special, election, despite its isolated timing; the state’s judicial elections have their own timetable. It’s also not technically a partisan battle; it’s officially a nonpartisan race in this hyperpartisan state. And the outcome won’t even fundamentally change the ideological balance on the Supreme Court: a win by center-left circuit court judge and former prosecutor Rebecca Dallet over conservative activist turned lawyer and judge Michael Screnock would simply reduce the court’s conservative majority from 5–2 to 4–3.


    But this is Wisconsin, ground zero for partisan polarization, so even this election is a cage match. It was set up by a primary contest on February 20 that mostly served to eliminate a third, more liberal candidate (Tim Burns). At stake is a ten-year term on the court; the current occupant, conservative Michael Gableman, declined to run for another term. Dallet’s campaign is viewed by her supporters as a waystation to a possible liberal majority on the court after the 2020 elections. They are playing chess, not checkers.


    The Dallet/Screnock competition, as aired out in ads and a series of debates, has been pretty noisy for a judicial contest, albeit predictable: Screnock accuses Dallet of being a lefty zealot who wants to legislate from the bench, while Dallet accuses Screnock of being a puppet for the corporate groups closely aligned with Walker. Dallet probably made a mistake with remarks to donors in San Francisco saying she shared their “values,” but it’s unlikely that will matter to persuadable voters (if there are any) any more than Screnock’s two arrests back in 1989 for illegal protests at abortion clinics.


    Both candidates are drawing significant support from “outside” organizations. Dallet has received contributions from Eric Holder’s National Democratic Redistricting Committee, and Holder himself has stumped for her. She’s also gotten some support from For Our Future PAC, a group formed by billionaire Tom Steyer in conjunction with major unions.

    Screnock is being backed by the NRA and the state and national business lobbies who are strongly supporting the Wisconsin GOP’s assaults on unions, state employees, and voting rights. The Koch-affiliated Americans for Prosperity has been working to turn out the conservative vote in the race.


    It’s hard to say which candidate has the advantage.

    Republicans have been over-performing in Wisconsin in recent years, as reflected in Scott Walker’s serial wins and the upsets pulled in 2016 by Senator Ron Johnson and (of course) Donald Trump. But anti-Trump sentiment and Democratic enthusiasm could tilt the balance back towars Dallet. Screnock won 46 percent of the vote in the primary, but may struggle to get much of third-place finisher Tim Burns’s 18 percent (Dallet won 36 percent). Polling shows mostly indifference:

    A survey released earlier this month by the respected Marquette Law School polling outfit showed that 81 percent of voters didn’t know enough about Screnock to form a clear opinion of him; 77 percent didn’t know squat about Dallet.


    Turnout in recent Supreme Court elections in Wisconsin has averaged an abysmal 7.3 percent.

    So Tuesday’s contest is above all a statewide tune-up for the voter mobilization efforts both parties intend to deploy in November, when both Scott Walker and Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin will be on the ballot.

    It’s a big deal for the court itself and for the lawyers and interest groups with business before it. But for political people, it’s just another skirmish in one of America’s most intense partisan wars.

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...arnburner.html
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  3. #3
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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