Wisconsin

Justices

• Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson – Re-elected April 2009; next term expires 2019. (leans progressive)

• Justice Ann Walsh Bradley – Term expires 2015 (leans progressive)

• Justice N. Patrick Crooks – Term expires 2016 (leans conservative), perhaps most Conservative on Bench

• Justice David Prosser, Jr. – Term expires 2011 (leans conservative)

• Justice Patience Roggensack – Term expires 2013 (leans conservative)

• Justice Annette Ziegler – Term ends 2017 (leans conservative)

• Justice Michael Gableman – (leans conservative) (Defeated incumbent Justice Louis Butler in 2008)

About the court

Terms are 10 years.

The court is non-partisan with a conservative majority. The balance changed with the defeat of former Justice Louis Butler by Justice Michael Gableman in 2008. Special interest groups spent an estimated $4 million in helping Justice Gableman defeat Justice Louis Butler this year, 49-51%. Nota bene: Justice Butler was the first African American to sit on the Wisconsin bench, as well as a very well-respected jurist, while Justice Gableman was a relatively unknown one-term county circuit judge before assuming the Bench.

Swing votes from consumers, workers, environmentalists countering pharmaceutical industry and insurance industry interests.

Chief Justice Abrahamson and Justice Bradley can be counted on to support the rights of individuals, while Justices Roggensack and Ziegler are solidly pro-corporate. Justices Crooks and Prosser often swing votes.

Corporate interest in judicial races is led by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). WMC does not disclose its donors. Most of its funding comes from out of state, national chains like Wal-Mart and other lobbying organizations. Efforts to reform judicial election processes in WI stalled by Republican majority in the state house, which is reluctant to support public financing.