Wisconsin residents voted Burnett County Circuit Judge Michael Gableman to be on the state Supreme Court Tuesday in a race that went down to the wire.
Gableman and incumbent Judge Louis Butler were close in vote totals throughout the evening, but returns showed Gableman pulling ahead around 11:00 p.m.
It is the first time an incumbent Supreme Court Judge was defeated in an election since 1967.
However, Butler won in Dane County, winning by ratios of 5-to-1 and 10-to-1 in some campus wards, according to early vote totals.
Gableman campaigned largely on his support from law enforcement around the state and his former career as a prosecutor. He said he was a judicial conservative and Butler was a judicial activist.
He won with a very clear message, that he would apply the law and not make it,"" Darrin Schmitz, Gableman's campaign consultant, said.
UW-Madison Law student Ryan Moze said he voted for Butler based on policy issues.
""I didn't like Gableman's ... ultra pro-business stance. I don't think that's a direction we need to go in,"" Moze said.
Moze said he did not like Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state's largest business lobbyist group, which supported Gableman.
WMC spent millions of dollars trying to get Gableman elected, similar to the amount it spent for Justice Annette Ziegler in last year's Supreme Court race. Several large teachers' unions and other traditionally Democratic-leaning groups also spent heavily on advertisements favoring Butler.
UW-Madison sophomore Kristin Johnson said she voted for Gableman and 'Yes' on the statewide referendum limiting the governor's veto power.
