MADISON, Wis. — The next Supreme Court race isn't until 2025, but Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel is already putting his name in the hat in the hopes of flipping the newly liberal majority back to conservative.
"I fear we're entering another dark period of liberal leadership, especially on the Wisconsin Supreme Court," Schimel said.
Former Wisconsin attorney general and self-described "ultra-conservative" Brad Schimel is getting a really early start on campaigning for a seat on the state's highest court. He made the announcement Thursday night at Weldall Manufacturing in Waukesha.
"I'm running to restore the integrity and accountability to the Wisconsin Supreme Court," Schimel said.
Charles Franklin with the Marquette Law School poll says the early announcement by Schimel was a bit surprising.
"I can't recall a Supreme Court race that had a [similar] early announcement for a candidacy," Franklin said.
According to Franklin, picking your party in Supreme Court races isn't new.
"I think we've seen growing partisanship in Supreme Court races for a good 20 years now," he said.
However, candidates openly sharing their beliefs or values has become a growing development in candidates' campaigns. It is something voters are now looking for.
Franklin explained, "In our latest Marquette law school poll, we asked people if they wanted candidates to talk about the issues, or avoid talking about issues so as not to appear to pre-judge cases, and an overwhelming majority, over 80 percent, including 70 percent of Republicans, said they wanted the candidates to talk about the issues they stood for."
With sharing values comes a fine line where candidates are tasked with not "pre-judging" cases.
It's a line conservatives say Justice Protasiewicz crossed in her campaign last year, and one Democrats say Schimel has in his career too.
Franklin says with more and more policy issues being settled in the courts, it will be hard to pull the politics out of judicial elections.
"I think ultimately we're seeing these elections being contested more like November general elections and much less like non-partisan elections," he said.
Schimel will face long-time liberal justice Ann Walsh Bradley, who has held on to the seat for three decades.
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