Spring Green, Wisconsin
Thursday, February 9, 2023 | Vol. 4, No. 3 FREE, Single-Copy
Inside this edition
WI State Supreme Court Candidate Profiles
New Literary Section: Lexington & Jefferson
WisPolitics: Richland Center reels as campus debate ensues
Pages 1, 9
Page 8
Page 10
Meet the candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court likely to be the decisive vote on abortion, gerrymandering Peter Cameron, The Badger Project
The election could have monumental ramifications in the state. A normally sleepy election, the 2023 race for Wisconsin Supreme Court could have huge consequences in the battleground state. Experts predict tens of millions of dollars will be spent to influence it. The Wisconsin Supreme Court currently sits with a tight, 4-3 right-wing majority. But the seat up for reelection belongs to a retiring conservative justice, so state liberals see a rare chance to flip the court. Two right-wing and two left-wing justices are running in the Feb. 21 primary. The two candidates with the highest vote totals will move on to the general election in April. It’s possible that both right-wing judges or left-wing judges could advance, though in recent elections one from each side has made it to the general. The primary and general elections for Wisconsin Supreme Court technically are nonpartisan, but the candidates have signaled clear partisan leanings that reflect an increasingly politicized state and country. And the major issues of abortion and gerrymandering are likely at stake, drawing attention from national news sources — the New York Times called the 2023 race “A Colossal Off-Year Election” — and elevating the election’s historically modest profile. Out-of-state donors are already pouring tens of thousands into the race, with much more to come. Wisconsin, which has frequently elected Democrats in statewide races while having a near-supermajority, Republicancontrolled legislature for years, is one of the most gerrymandered states in the country, many experts say. The court’s conservative majority has made several rulings allowing Republicans
Clockwise, from top left, Dane County Judge Everett Mitchell, Waukesha County Judge Jennifer Dorow, former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, and Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz. to continue their gerrymander into the current decade. A left-wing majority could overturn those decisions and try to install more competitive, nonpartisan political maps in the state. In addition, an 1849 state law making abortion illegal in all cases and enacted decades before women could vote now has become relevant after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has filed a court challenge to the 174-yearold law, a case likely to reach the state Supreme Court. If cases applying to those issues make their way to the state’s high court, one of
these candidates likely will be the decisive vote:
Jennifer Dorow (right-wing candidate)
A judge on the Waukesha County Circuit Court, Dorow on her campaign website calls herself a “judicial conservative who will not legislate from the bench.” “I am not constrained by political ideologies and academic thinking,” she states on the website. She also touts her 26-year legal career — during which she worked as a prosecutor and defense attorney in private practice — and her 11 years as a judge. She earned her law degree from Regent
University School of Law in Virginia, which prominent conservative Christian Rev. Pat Robertson established. Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Patience Roggensack, whose seat Dorow is trying to win, has endorsed her. And Dorow has support from the most law enforcement officials of any candidate in the race. Many current and former county sheriffs, the Milwaukee Police Association, and the Waukesha County Police Chiefs Association also have endorsed her. Dorow rose to statewide prominence while presiding over the 2022 trial of Darrell Brooks, whom she sentenced to life in prison for driving a car into a Waukesha Christmas parade in 2021, killing six. Dorow won positive reviews from many experts for calmly and firmly overseeing the trial in which Brooks, representing himself, repeatedly and wildly interrupted proceedings. Her name emerged again in news reports in January about an 18-year-old UW-Milwaukee freshman who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2021. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that two of the man’s friends said the judge’s son Michael Dorow frequently sold prescription pills to the man in the weeks before his death. The deceased man’s family publicly has expressed frustration at what they consider to be the investigation’s slow pace. In a statement, the University of WisconsinMilwaukee Police told The Badger Project that the 15-month-old case is pending. Replying to news reports linking Michael Dorow to the overdose death, Judge Dorow posted a statement to social media: “I understand that by putting my name on the ballot I invited scrutiny about myself and my actions. My children aren’t running for office and they, and every candidate’s kids, should be off limits. We need to restore a
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