Lauren Justice
Justice Ann Walsh Bradley talks with media and supporters at Top of the Park Restaurant after being re-elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Justice Ann Walsh Bradley scored a decisive victory Tuesday over her challenger, Rock County Judge James Daley, even besting him by 900 votes in his home county. Bradley’s win leaves the Supreme Court’s liberal minority intact, but voters also passed a constitutional amendment that will likely bring a conservative chief justice into power.
With 99% of votes in, the unofficial results have Bradley winning 58% of the vote.
"Tonight we did send a message," Bradley said Tuesday night at her election party at Inn on the Park. "We sent a message loudly and clearly around the state that we want our judicial campaigns and our courtrooms to be free of partisan politics."
In a statement, Daley congratulated Bradley but tossed out a final jab: "Tonight we witnessed first-hand the power of incumbency, as liberal special interests band together to protect their candidate."
Though the Supreme Court election is nonpartisan, Daley painted Bradley as a liberal activist judge during the campaign. Yet in his own radio ads Daley touted Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s legislative agenda, charging that Bradley “has consistently used her position to oppose Gov. Walker’s major reforms.”
Tuesday night, Bradley, said she ran for a third 10-year term in order to fight for an independent judiciary.
"Everyone in Wisconsin — no matter how rich or poor, no matter how powerful or powerless, no matter if they're Republican or Democrat or independent — everyone deserves a fair shake," she said.
The low-key race saw little outside spending, with the exception of the liberal Greater Wisconsin Committee spending $100,000 on an ad attacking Daley last week.
Instead, interest groups focused their cash on the referendum proposing a change in the way Wisconsin selects its chief justice. The Greater Wisconsin Committee spent $280,000 on their efforts to sway voters to oppose the amendment, while the conservative Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce spent $600,000 to support it.
For the last 126 years, the selection was based on seniority, but voters on Tuesday amended Wisconsin's constitution to allow members of the court to elect their leader. The referendum passed by a 53-to-47 margin.
With the court's conservative majority, the change will likely lead to the demotion of Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, part of the liberal wing on the bench. Abrahamson has been in her position since 1996 and has served on the court for nearly four decades.
Supporters of the referendum have said that doing away with the seniority model will increase collegiality and democracy on the court, which has been plagued by disagreements among justices in recent years. But critics have decried the change as a blatant power grab by conservatives seeking greater control over the court.
