While presidential candidates for both parties square off ahead of Wisconsin’s April 5 primary, there is another race students should know about as well. Rebecca Bradley and JoAnne Kloppenburg are vying for an open seat on the State Supreme Court and its corresponding 10-year term. The state's highest court hears cases from lower courts across Wisconsin and issues verdicts affecting all citizens, including students. Here is some background on the two nonpartisan candidates.
Kloppenburg highlights her nonpartisanship
Appeals Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg is championing independence and rejecting partisanship in her campaign for a seat on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court.
Kloppenburg has 25 years of experience, beginning her career as an assistant attorney general and now serving as a judge in the District 4 Court of Appeals in Madison.
Bradley has 19 years of experience in the judicial profession and, like Kloppenburg, positions herself as being committed to a fair and impartial application of the law.
During the last debate of the race on March 23, contrasting views on how to finance campaigns arose between the two candidates. Kloppenburg said she would “support having taxpayers fund the campaigns of judicial candidates so they would not have to raise money from private donors,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Bradley said the race showed public financing gives “an even more outsized voice for third-party interests.”
Kloppenburg portrays herself as the defender of law from special interest groups. She is seen as the liberal candidate, despite her emphasis on being nonpartisan.
“I have always believed that fairness and justice are fundamental principles we must uphold,” Kloppenburg said on her website. “I am unwilling to surrender our courts to outside special interests and partisan politics...Rebecca Bradley is Walker’s choice. I am running to be the people’s choice.”
Bradley cites experience, but past mistakes loom
As Election Day draws closer, the pressure has intensified for state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley.
After liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now recently released a letter to the editor Bradley wrote as a college student, she has faced heavy scrutiny. The letter contained Bradley’s feelings about the gay community, calling them “degenerates” and their actions “immoral.”
Although Bradley apologized for those comments in a Wisconsin State Journal article, many wonder if she has the ability to judge impartially if elected.
“Her career does not show much evidence of change,” said Kloppenburg in a WISN.com article. “She’s continued to articulate very extreme and conservative viewpoints throughout her career.”
Bradley has been appointed to serve as a judge three different times in the past four years by Gov. Scott Walker. In 2012, Walker appointed Bradley to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court; in May of 2015, he appointed her to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals; and five months later, Walker appointed Bradley to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. This pattern led a Cap Times editorial article to declare that “Bradley's judicial career has been shaped and defined by Walker.”
Bradley is hoping to move past these criticisms and refocus her image as a strong candidate with extensive judicial experience, characteristics which are at the center of her campaign.
“I understand my duty to apply the law as it is written and not as I may wish it to be,” Bradley said on her website. “I have faithfully exercised this duty in hundreds of cases as a judge.”
