Rebecca Bradley and JoAnne Kloppenburg are about to find out which of them will get a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court after months of bitter campaigning marked by a deluge of negative publicity over Bradley’s college writings two decades ago. With 88 percent of precincts reporting as of 11:30 p.m. Central time, Bradley had 53 percent of the vote and Kloppenburg 47 percent, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Gov. Scott Walker is sending signals that he may appoint Bradley to fill a vacancy on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. “I think that there were probably more voters who came out to vote in the Republican primary and they’re probably more likely to be Rebecca Bradley voters”.
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Bradley said she has received support from across the state this week. Please join me in helping her maintain her current seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Supreme Court justices are officially nonpartisan, but a bloc of five conservative-leaning justices – counting Bradley – controls the seven-member court.
Aside from the race for president, the only other statewide election is for state Supreme Court.
The governor appointed Bradley, a supporter of his partisan campaigns, to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in December 2012.
In the final hours before today’s Wisconsin presidential primary, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were were in total agreement.
Kloppenburg says the GOP is “helping pay for” Bradley’s campaign and “she recently skipped court to attend an event paid for” by Scott Walker’s “lobbyist friends.” .
Kloppenburg was elected to the Court of Appeals in 2012 and is now the presiding judge for the Court’s District IV. It seems that anytime a woman or black person, who is perceived not to be a progressive/liberal, attempts to gain an important government position, the vicious attacks rise to a level beyond the normal.
She didn’t entirely skip court one day, but did leave oral arguments the Supreme Court was hearing early in order to speak at a Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce event.
The conservative Wisconsin Alliance for Reform has spent more than $1.5 million backing Bradley while the liberal Greater Wisconsin Committee has spent at least $345,00 on behalf of Kloppenburg, according to campaign watchdog group Justice at Stake.
Bradley has been appointed three times in as many years by Walker to judgeships.
Kloppenburg’s campaign manager, Melissa Mulliken, said a big turnout could help her candidate, in general.
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“She talked about not legislating from the bench and she basically talked about her experience at every level of the justice system”, he said.
