In Wisconsin, Democrats won the opstate supreme court’s open seatgiving the liberals their first majority. This was a significant off-year election victory for the Democrats.
nytimes
Who Won Wi Election?
According to a race called by The Associated Press, Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly to win the hotly contested race. The amount spent on the campaign broke the previous record set at the federal level for a state supreme court election.
The court, as well as the Democratic voters who elected Protasiewicz, will benefit significantly from her victory. With a liberal majority, the justices are almost certain to hear an appeal of Wisconsin’s pre-Civil War abortion ban. They are also likely to consider a lawsuit that could overturn Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn legislative districts.
In the unlikely event that something unexpected occurs, the victory also ensures that liberals will hold a majority on the court going into the 2016 presidential election, when Wisconsin, the traditional swing state, is anticipated to play a crucial role in the race again for the White House.
Democrats’ high expectations:
Democrats hope to finally shift the state’s political trajectory to the left if the court redrew the maps and gave them a better chance of winning elections for the legislature. The Wisconsin congressional district, where Republicans currently control six of the eight U. S House seats in a state that is evenly divided.
Protasiewicz spent 25 years as a prosecutor in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office before spending most of the last ten years as a judge. He was born and raised on Milwaukee’s south side.
Protasiewicz was particularly forthright about her politics during the campaign, even though she never pledged to take a specific position on cases that the Supreme Court hears. She stated that she thought women had the right to decide on abortion. She described the state’s legislative maps, which were drawn by Republicans, as “rigged” when it came to redistricting”.
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