Liberal Karofsky wins Wisconsin Supreme Court seat

Authored by wsaw.com and submitted by herpderpedian
image for Liberal Karofsky wins Wisconsin Supreme Court seat

Dane County Circuit Judge Jill Karofsky defeated conservative Justice Dan Kelly to win a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in results released Monday from last week’s chaotic spring election.

The race was officially nonpartisan, but the high court has become heavily politicized in recent years. Liberal groups poured more than $2.4 million into the race for Karofsky, while conservatives spent more than $2.5 million for Kelly — who also drew President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

Karofsky’s victory narrows the court’s conservative majority to 4-3 and gives liberals a shot at seizing control when the next seat comes open in 2023.

Karofsky spent most of the campaign on the offensive, accusing Kelly repeatedly of being corrupt for consistently siding with conservative groups that come before the court. Kelly accused Karofsky of slandering him, and the court’s other conservatives questioned her ethics.

Wisconsin was the only state with an April election that didn’t postpone it to protect voters and poll workers from the coronavirus. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued a last-minute order on April 6 postponing in-person voting to June but the state Supreme Court struck the order down within hours. Kelly recused himself from that decision because he was running.

The election went on as planned on April 7. But the shifting deadlines forced many voters to decide between sitting the election out or venturing to the polls to cast their ballots in-person and risk contracting the virus.

Snickersthecat on April 14th, 2020 at 03:07 UTC »

I think some of the real shockers this evening come from the suburban belt counties around Milwaukee. They're conservative and vote at an extremely high rates, usually cancelling out progressive votes from the cities.

We saw about a ten to fifteen point shift left from last year, and they're voting almost at presidential-race levels. Kelly only won Ozaukee County (very wealthy/educated suburbs) by 12 points (56%-44%). That sounds like a lot, but in ye olden days it could go 70% for the conservative candidate. The suburban shift is even creeping into some of the most conservative suburbs in the county. Trump absolutely will not win with those numbers.

geronimo1958 on April 14th, 2020 at 01:01 UTC »

Approx 53% to 47%. Very similar to the overall vote in the 2018 Wisconsin US House elections. Trumps real hope in 2020 is to hold onto Wisconsin. Michigan and Penn are most likely already lost.

Dopenastywhale on April 14th, 2020 at 00:54 UTC »

I was there voting. Just fuckin wait till Nov.