Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge Pat Roggensack ascended to one of the most powerful positions in the state Tuesday, beating out Barron County Circuit Court Judge Ed Brunner to become a justice on the state Supreme Court.
Roggensack will replace retiring Justice William Bablitch. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, she had 401,749 votes and Brunner had 383,189 votes.
During the campaign, Brunner declined to accept donations from political action committees, while Roggensack did not. Campaign finance became an issue in the race after lawyers donated heavily to both candidates. An Associated Press review of the campaign finance reports showed that over 99 lawyers and judges gave the candidates contributions of $100 or more.
Incumbent Brenda Konkel, a long-time housing activist, held her own against landlord-developer Erik Minton in the District 2 race.
Konkel soundly beat Minton with 2,004 votes to his 579. She thanked voters for \putting me back to work so I can continue working on all the issues that are so important to our district.""
The race focused heavily on housing issues. It acquired a negative reputation partway through the campaign when Minton accused Konkel supporters of stealing his yard signs, while Konkel accused Minton of convincing landlords to put his signs in their yards against their tenants' wishes.
After the win, Konkel said she hoped the negative tone of the race was a ""one-time"" occurrence.
Shelley Gaylord became the county circuit court judge in branch six, with 52,495 votes Tuesday. Her opponent, Michael Anderson, currently an attorney for Axley Brynelson, received 36,123 votes. Gaylord, who had the support of both mayoral candidates and a number of current county circuit judges, has been a Madison municipal judge for the past 10 years. Throughout her campaign, Gaylord stressed her involvement in implementing truancy court in the school systems and her efforts to create public funding for Supreme Court
candidates.
Twenty anti-war protesters were each cited $69 Tuesday for blocking a sidewalk as they participated in a civil disobedience action outside U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl's, D-Wis., Madison office, according to the Associated Press.
Those cited were among 40 protesting outside Kohl's office.
Kohl was one of two Democratic members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation to vote in October authorizing President Bush to use military force against Iraq.
A forum today will examine the progress of Plan 2008, the university's diversity initiative.
The forum will feature Bernice Durand, vice chancellor of diversity and climate, and Chancellor John Wiley discussing the current status of Plan 2008 and goals for the future. Also, a group of executives from Procter & Gamble, Hewlett Packard, Cargill and Kimberly-Clark will address the importance of diversity at the university level to the corporate world.
A complete schedule of today's events, which will be held in Memorial Union from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m., can be found at
