{"id":62129,"date":"2018-04-04T04:26:58","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T04:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=62129"},"modified":"2018-04-04T04:26:58","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T04:26:58","slug":"democrat-wins-a-bitter-costly-race-for-wisconsin-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/democrat-wins-a-bitter-costly-race-for-wisconsin-supreme-court.html","title":{"rendered":"Democrat wins a bitter, costly race for Wisconsin Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democrat wins a bitter, costly race for Wisconsin Supreme Court<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Wisconsin Democrats declared victory on Tuesday night after Milwaukee Judge Rebecca Dallet won a bitter race for a seat on the state\u2019s Supreme Court.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dallet\u2019s win over Judge Michael Screnock shrunk the conservative majority on the court to one vote, after a campaign that had become the latest test of Trump-era liberal activism and political spending.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both candidates and their supporters turned the race, which is technically nonpartisan, into a political referendum. Dallet ran early ads that accused President Trump of \u201cattack[ing] our civil rights and our values,\u201d while Screnock portrayed himself as a \u201crule of law\u201d conservative endorsed by the National Rifle Association. By election day, more than $2.5 million had been spent on TV ads.<\/span><\/p>\n

With 88 percent of the precincts reporting, Dallet had 56 percent of the vote and Screnock had 44 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Voters also defeated a ballot measure that would have abolished the state treasurer\u2019s office, and which was backed by Gov. Scott Walker (R).<\/span><\/p>\n

Democrats, who had surprised Republicans in January by flipping a state Senate seat in rural northwest Wisconsin, quickly turned to the Supreme Court race. Screnock won 46.3 percent of the vote in a Feb. 20 \u201cjungle primary,\u201d with the rest of the vote going to Dallet and another Democrat.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Democrat quickly worked to define Screnock, who had been appointed to the bench by Walker, as an ideological extremist who had been arrested when protesting abortion clinics.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe has advocated on behalf of gerrymandering, rigging our maps in our state, which has been found to be unconstitutional,\u201d said Dallet in a March debate with Screnock. \u201cHe has stood in front of women\u2019s ability to access their lawful rights, and he\u2019s been arrested twice for doing that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Screnock, who acknowledged his past as a protester, said Dallet was the real activist in the race and he could be an honest broker.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything changed when I became a judge,\u201d he said. \u201cI am no longer an advocate for any party that comes in front of me. I am no longer an advocate for any issue that comes in front of me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Screnock\u2019s defeat narrowed the court\u2019s conservative majority to 4-3, and Democrats had not won an open Supreme Court seat election since 1995. They had been burned by a close-call defeat in 2011, when what appeared to be an election-night victory was undone by uncounted ballots from conservative Waukesha County.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the Democrats began Tuesday cautiously optimistic about a win. Turnout, which had often been sluggish in the Democratic bases of Madison and Milwaukee, was well ahead of previous years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTonight\u2019s results show we are at risk of a #BlueWave in WI,\u201d Walker tweeted Tuesday night. \u201cThe Far Left is driven by anger & hatred \u2014 we must counter it with optimism & organization. Let\u2019s share our positive story with voters & win in November.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats have traditionally lost competitive races in the spring because their voters didn\u2019t turn out,\u201d said Scot Ross, executive director of the liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now. \u201cBut there\u2019s been a year and a half of activism, getting people organized and excited before this race.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Multiple Democratic groups tried to direct that activism into Tuesday\u2019s race. Tom Steyer\u2019s NextGen America ran a millennial turnout campaign; former vice president Joe Biden recorded a pro-Dallet call; and former attorney general Eric Holder\u2019s National Democratic Redistricting Committee put $165,000 into digital ads.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe strikes me as the kind of judge who will direct rationality into the system,\u201d Holder said at a mid-March campaign stop for Dallet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Republicans attempted to turn Dallet\u2019s liberal support against her. State Sen. Leah Vukmir, a Republican challenging U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), called on Dallet to \u201capologize\u201d to the family of a Border Patrol agent who died while Holder was attorney general. Republicans repeatedly attacked Dallet for telling donors in San Francisco that \u201cyour values are our Wisconsin values that we\u2019ve lost along the way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But like many judicial races, the Wisconsin campaign frequently came down to the judges\u2019 most controversial cases. In one ad, Dallet said Screnock \u201clet a child predator walk without time.\u201d In another ad, from the Screnock-backing Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, Dallet was accused of giving her own light sentence to a child molester. On Tuesday, after Dallet claimed the ad was false, WMC filed a judicial ethics complaint against her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that Wisconsin\u2019s court is best served by justices who interpret the law as it is written, instead of legislating from the bench by imparting their personal views on court cases,\u201d WMC President Kurt Bauer said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/powerpost\/wisconsin-judicial-race-becomes-costly-partisan-contest\/2018\/04\/03\/5a2adf66-376e-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html?utm_term=.f83a7ef6f703<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t