Talking Politics

Annette Ziegler’s easy win in yesterday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court (WSC) election only means the court’s previous balance between liberal and conservative has held. But people are thinking that this won’t last for much longer. With conservative Ziegler now replacing retiring conservative justice Jon P. Wilcox, liberals on the WSC are still a 4-3 majority. But liberal Justice Louis B. Butler Jr. now faces a bruising fight to hold his seat in an election next year that could overturn the court’s majority.

And if the recent election campaign was any indication, Butler and his unannounced opponent had better start raising funds and collecting backers as soon as possible. Estimates by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), reported by the AP today, put total spending for this campaign at over $6 million. This beats the previous record, set by the 1999 election, by more than four times.

Clifford, who lost to Ziegler by a 58-42 percent margin, claimed her campaign was outspent 3-1 by Ziegler’s. But both candidates’ campaigns received significant third-party campaign help, including negative TV ads that drew heavy criticism. One featured accusations that Ziegler routinely handed out light sentences to child sex offenders.

The high-spending campaign spurred state Democratic lawmakers to propose public funding for Wisconsin Supreme Court elections. Illinois and Washington state are also currently voting on similar bills. The Ziegler-Clifford campaign, which began at the end of February, had officially raised $1.7 million by mid-March, according to WDC.