The Capitol Report, produced by WisPolitics.com — a nonpartisan, Madison-based news service that specializes in coverage of government and politics — provides a weekly analysis of issues being debated in Wisconsin state government. It is underwritten by the WNA and produced exclusively for its members. WisPolitics.com President Jeff Mayers is a former editor and reporter for the Associated Press and a former political writer for the Wisconsin State Journal.
Wisconsin has big races this fall, for sure. The races for governor and U.S. Senate are nationally important.
But a lot of insiders are already eyeing the spring 2023 race for state Supreme Court, a seat that will determine ideological control of the high court.
Three major candidates already have lined up to compete for the seat being vacated by the former conservative chief justice, Pat Roggensack.
The court now has a 4-3 conservative majority, though Justice Brian Hagedorn has sided with liberals on several high-profile cases. If a left-of-center candidate won the seat now held by Roggensack, it would give liberals firm control of a court that could be asked to weigh in on high-profile issues such as abortion and redistricting.
The latest to jump into the race is former Justice Daniel Kelly.
Kelly, a conservative who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2016 by former Gov. Scott Walker and lost a 2020 campaign to keep his seat, has been publicly mulling a bid for months.
“I am incredibly grateful to those all over the state who have encouraged me to run,” said Kelly, who lost to liberal Jill Karofsky.
“They know the importance of electing a justice with a track record of protecting our Constitution, faithfully applying the law as written, and respecting the people of Wisconsin as his bosses.”
Dane County Circuit Court Judge Everett Mitchell and Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz — both viewed as left-of-center candidates — have already announced their plans to run for Roggensack’s seat.
“If an activist were to win next April, Wisconsin’s public policy would be imposed by four lawyers sitting in Madison instead of being adopted through our constitutional processes,” Kelly said. “I won’t let that happen on my watch.”
Protasiewicz campaign manager Alejandro Verdin called Kelly “a radical right-wing extremist with views about the law far outside the mainstream.”
Meanwhile, Mitchell campaign manager Sean Elliott called Kelly a “reckless and failed Trump-Walker politician who would use the Court for conservative activism, ignoring the will of Wisconsin voters to
turn back the clock on our state.”
Let the 2023 campaign season begin!
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