MyDD :: Bad News: Right-Winger defeats liberal Sup. Ct. Justice in WI

Bad News: Right-Winger defeats liberal Sup. Ct. Justice in WI

by blueflorida, Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 03:05:13 AM EST

From the AP:

Michael Gableman has defeated Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler in one of the nastiest races in state history.

Gableman had 51 percent of Tuesday's vote compared with 49 percent for Butler with 93 percent of precincts reporting.

Butler is the first incumbent justice to lose a re-election bid since 1967.

He joined the court in 2004 after being appointed by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.
Gableman is a Burnett County Circuit judge.

He built his campaign around the charge that Butler was a judicial activist. Gableman claims to be a judicial conservative.

Republicans lined up behind Gableman in the officially nonpartisan race.

This is awful. Butler was one of the more liberal justices on the WI supreme court. He was also the first African-American justice in the Court's history. Gableman's campaign was financed by rightwing corporate interests and he ran incredibly nasty ads against Butler accusing him of being soft on crime.

Anyone in Wisconsin right now with a local perspective on this?

Tags: wisconsin, supreme court (all tags)

Permalink :: 6 Comments :: Post a Comment

Re: Bad News: Right-Winger defeats liberal Sup. Ct (none / 0)

Candidates from Milwaukee never run well in statewide elections. This may be a hint of a McCain-Obama matchup. If Obama cant carry Wisconsin, he will lose the election if he is the nominee.

by Safe at Home on Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 04:00:19 AM EST

Re: Bad News: Right-Winger defeats liberal Sup. Ct (none / 0)

Well, if that's the case, Hillary shouldn't be the nominee by her own measure. After all, winning a state in the primary shows you'll win it in the general election, right?

Anyway, that's very unfortunate for Wisconsinites. Given that it comes only a few weeks after such huge Democratic turnout in their primary, I'm surprised to see republicans succeed. Perhaps Democrats weren't as organized, or weren't aware of how partisan the race had become or something.

Whatever the case, it shows that we certainly should not take Wisconsin for granted as a blue state. It only narrowly went for Kerry last time.

by Johnny Gentle Famous Crooner on Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 06:17:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]

THANK YOU for diaring this! (none / 0)

I can't believe the low tone of this election on the part of Gableman. He had Butler side by side with a rapist in the commercials asking 'would you vote for THIS man?' trying to say that voting for Butler (a BLACK MAN) is the same as voting for a BLACK RAPIST. Awful dirty stuff.

Of course they didnt mention in the commercial that Butler was a defense attourney nor that the guy they're talking about served a full sentence.

They say "Butler found a loophole" to let the rapist go free. As Butler said in an interview "Never before have I ever heard anyone refer to the constitution as a 'loophole'!

We now have a Supreme court that tilts to the right. We NEED outside money out of Supreme Court justice races!

by searchforsolidarity on Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 06:34:04 AM EST

Re: THANK YOU for diaring this! (none / 0)

The very idea of electing judges is awful. We do that here in PA also and it needs to stop.

by Quinton on Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 06:40:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: THANK YOU for diaring this! (none / 0)

Or at least change the rules so that outside groups can't have so much influence. The reason Gableman won was due to the business lobby's outrageous spending on these awful ads linking Butler to a rapist he represented as a public defender.

I can't believe Wisconsin fell for it!

by searchforsolidarity on Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 06:53:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Bad News: Right-Winger defeats liberal Sup. Ct (none / 0)

BushCO/Rove knew it was all about the judges...
Any info concerning these "outside groups?

"If you want to end war and stuff, you gotta sing loud"...Arlo Guthrie

by nogo war on Wed Apr 02, 2008 at 07:47:20 AM EST

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