What Next - Wisconsin’s High-Stakes Supreme Court Race
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
In Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court election is breaking records when it comes to campaign spending on a judicial race. With abortion rights for Wisconsinites, their state’s electoral geography, and potentially the fate of the 2024 presidential election on the line, that big ticket spending makes sense. But will it make a difference in who gets the seat?
Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, senior staff writer for Slate.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Upgrading your gas boiler to an EDF air source heat pump could save on emissions and cash in the future. |
| 0:05.5 | You could cut your carbon footprint by about 12% a year. |
| 0:09.3 | That's similar to a return flight from London to Perth. |
| 0:12.3 | Plus, we'll arrange your £5,000 boiler upgrade grant over 22 years installation experience. |
| 0:19.0 | EDF, help in Britain achieve net zero. |
| 0:22.0 | Based on average household with an aerated gas boiler, |
| 0:24.1 | ONS reports BA carbon calculator and energy saving trust data grant subject to eligibility details at edfnity.com. |
| 0:37.1 | Today in Wisconsin, there's an election with seismic stakes. |
| 0:43.1 | It's for a seat on the state supreme court, where conservatives hold a four to three majority. |
| 0:48.9 | The reason this race is so important is because Wisconsin is also a state |
| 0:53.7 | where democratic governor and a Republican supermajority in the legislature are constantly tossing disagreements to the state supreme court. |
| 1:01.7 | Justices on that bench have essentially become the arbiters on issues from absentee voting to public health emergencies to upholding the 2020 presidential election results. |
| 1:12.7 | If you live there and you own a TV, you might have noticed some rather intense advertisements for what might usually be a quiet, off-year electoral race. |
| 1:23.7 | Slate senior writer on courts in the law, Mark Joseph Stern, told me about this $45 million blitz. |
| 1:30.7 | Wisconsinites are getting flooded with these ads that are ostensibly for an independent and nonpartisan position on the supreme court, |
| 1:38.7 | but that certainly have a political valence and both of the judges to some degree are wrestling with how much of their political views they want to put out there for the public to absorb and vote on. |
| 1:51.7 | It turns out they want to say quite a bit about their political views. |
| 1:56.7 | Take this ad, which includes sheriffs in uniform, forecasting a crime hellscape if one candidate wins. |
| 2:03.7 | Janet Protosewitz is a Milwaukee County judge with a long history of letting dangerous criminals back into our streets, directly undermining the work of our officers and putting your family at risk. |
| 2:14.7 | We can't afford to have judges who put their own agendas above the law. |
| 2:19.7 | Or this one that features a devastating pregnancy story. |
| 2:23.7 | There were severe health complications with my baby when I was pregnant. |
... |
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