Wis. Election Could Have Implications for Voters Nationally

Early this month a huge percentage of Wisconsin voters had no opinion of the two candidates running for an open seat on their state Supreme Court.

One can only hope that Wednesday’s televised debate between Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel gave them a better idea.

Crawford is a liberal Dane County Circuit Court judge and Schimel is a conservative Waukesha County Circuit Court judge and former Wisconsin attorney general.

This election will determine whether liberals or conservatives control the state high court.

Wisconsin is an important battleground state — one of seven that determines the winner of each U.S. presidential election; with any luck they’ll make the right decision.

There were two takeaways from Wednesday evening that should send voters running to the polls to pull the lever for Schimel: Congressional District gerrymandering and voter ID laws.

On the first issue, gerrymandering, Crawford participated alongside Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler on a "donor advisory briefing" earlier this year.

The headline of an email invitation to the event announced, "Chance to put two more House seats in play for 2026."

This apparently referred to the Badger State's first and third Congressional districts, retained by Republicans despite millions of dollars in Democrat funding spent last year to unseat them.

Because this implied that Crawford would vote favorably on any redistricting lawsuit brought by the state Democratic party to flip the two seats in 2026, she was asked about the email invitation at the debate.

"Well, I don’t think that the email that was sent out was an appropriate way to announce the judicial candidate, to be frank," she said.

Crawford added that she wasn’t made aware of the invitation until after the event.

We can only take her at her word on that, but bear in mind one final note: Crawford received a $1 million campaign donation from the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

A few days later she described herself as the sole impartial and nonpartisan candidate running for the state Supreme Court.

Voter ID was another issue brought up at the debate, and it’s one that’s near and dear to conservatives, given that there are tens of millions of non-citizen residents in the United States — an estimated 10 million who are here illegally.

It’s also an issue important to all Wisconsin voters. State law already requires voters to present photo ID before casting a ballot, but at next month’s election Wisconsinites will vote whether to make that requirement a state constitutional provision.

Both candidates were asked about the ballot initiative.

Schimel answered, "When I’m on the bench, personal or political views are utterly irrelevant, and they’re utterly irrelevant in the Supreme Court race, but if you want to know how I’m going to vote, I’m going to vote 'yes.'"

He added that such voter integrity laws are "critically important," noting "the danger with vote fraud is you can’t undo the vote."

Crawford refused to say how she was going to vote on the issue, claiming that it could come up before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. "I just don’t think it’s appropriate for a judge to weigh in and try to influence voters on something like that," she said.

However, actions speak louder than words.

As a lawyer Crawford has litigated to overturn the state voter ID law while representing the League of Women Voters.

Although this is a state election, it’s one that can have national implications.

That was made clear by Scott Presler, who worked feverishly to registering voters for the Republican Party in Pennsylvania.

As a result, he won that state’s electoral votes for President Donald Trump, and flipped a U.S. Senate seat from incumbent Democrat Sen. Bob Casey Jr. to elect Sen. Dave McCormick, a Republican.

"There’s an important election in Wisconsin on April 1st. No one is talking about it," he said, and made this prediction:

"If we don’t elect Brad Schimel to the Court, then Democrats will gerrymander congressional maps. Democrats will take the House, keep drop boxes, and get rid of voter ID."

Presler closed by asking, "Is that what you want?"

Well, is it? Choose wisely, Wisconsin. America is watching.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.