(RepublicanNews.org) – Supreme Court Justices are elected in Wisconsin, and the race for top judge looks more like the political mudslinging voters see in presidential and congressional elections.
A Republican and a Democrat are squaring off for the court’s single open seat, and the outcome will determine the political bent of the court. Republican Dan Kelly has already served on the Wisconsin Supreme Court from 2016 to 2020. His opponent, Democrat Janet Protasiewicz is a Milwaukee County judge. The elections take place on April 4th.
Kelly has accused Protasiewicz of slandering him in her TV campaign ads that focused on Kelly’s views on abortion, and have now expanded to criticize his past positions and work on Republican issues.
Kelly would not elaborate on the allegations of slander, saying that he won’t address all the details, but that Protasiewcz’s ads are “nothing but a dirty pack of lies.”
Protasiewicz supports expansive rights to abortion, and Kelly’s supporters are portraying his opponent as unethical and soft on crime. Kelly said he doesn’t believe his opponent can function impartially on the Supreme Court bench.
When asked about his past work for Republican clients, Kelly said he also worked for left-leaning clients, but he did not name them. His writings and blog posts that detail his conservative views on abortion and other issues, he said, are not relevant to a judge’s duties in a courtroom.
The outcome of this race will determine whether the state’s Supreme Court is controlled by conservatives or liberals. Currently, the court has a 4-3 split in favor of conservatives.
Kelly will not say how he would rule on the state’s abortion laws if such a case were to come before the court. His personal blog essays on the topic have characterized abortion as something that “takes the life of an unborn child.”
He called Protasiewicz’s TV ads deceptive. The claim that Kelly would vote to uphold the 1849 abortion ban, he said, was “a lie” because he has not said outright how he would rule if the case were before him.
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