Depending on the outcome of the April 2 election, the court’s 4-3 conservative majority could be at risk in 2020 of being toppled for the firs…<doc-sep>Hey! Today is the 2019 Spring General Election! Fun! Okay, so it’s not the flashiest election out there, but that doesn’t mean it’s bereft of some super important races. And because only a fraction of voting-age adults actually vote in these damn things, your vote really, really counts. Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, a liberal or a conservative, on the right side of history or on the wrong, you should totally vote. Find out where to vote, how to vote, and what your ballot will look like HERE. For folks in Milwaukee County, here’s what to expect… WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT Tuesday’s big-ticket race is for state Supreme Court. Voters will decide whether Brian Hagedorn, 41, or Lisa Neubauer, 61, will replace retiring Justice Shirley Abrahamson. The nonpartisan election is highly partisan, of course, with Hagedorn backed by conservatives and Neubauer backed by liberals. If Hagedorn wins, conservatives would gain a 5-2 majority on the court. (Abrahamson has long leaned left.) If Neubauer wins, liberals would maintain a 4-3 margin, and get a shot at a majority when conservative Justice Daniel Kelly’s term expires in 2020. The winner will begin their 10-year term on August 1. Both Hagedorn and Neubauer are currently judges on the District 2 Court of Appeals. Learn more about them (and read their official bios) below. BRIAN HAGEDORN Judge Brian Hagedorn currently serves on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, the court one step below the Wisconsin Supreme Court. As an appellate judge, Hagedorn ensures that what happens in our trial courts is consistent with the law. He was appointed to the bench in 2015 by Gov. Scott Walker and won election to a new six-year term in April 2017. In addition to deciding cases, Hagedorn was appointed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to serve on the Wisconsin Judicial Commission, which oversees enforcement of the judicial code of ethics. He is also a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin Bench-Bar Committee. Hagedorn is a regular speaker to school and legal groups on the rule of law, legal writing, and judicial philosophy, among other topics. Prior to his judicial service, Hagedorn served as chief legal counsel to Walker for almost five years. His key job responsibilities included managing litigation in partnership with the attorney general, serving as the top ethics officer for the administration, advising on legal policy issues, overseeing judicial and district attorney appointments, and providing legal analysis on proposed legislation. In that capacity, Hagedorn has been involved in some of the most significant and high-profile litigation in Wisconsin history. Hagedorn has also served as an assistant attorney general at the Wisconsin Department of Justice, a law clerk for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, and as an attorney in private practice at a top Milwaukee law firm. He is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law, where he was the president of the Federalist Society. When not serving the people of Wisconsin, Hagedorn enjoys serving in his church, reading, rooting for the Green Bay Packers and Milwaukee Brewers, and spending time with his family. Hagedorn has been married for 17 years and has five children, ages 15, 13, 10, 7, and 5. LISA NEUBAUER Judge Neubauer was elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2014. She was the presiding judge in her district of the Court of Appeals from 2009 through 2015. The Wisconsin Supreme Court appointed her to serve as the chief judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in 2015, and reappointed her in May 2018. Neubauer also has decades of experience as a Wisconsin litigation attorney prior to becoming a judge. She was a partner at Foley and Lardner LLP and chair of the firm’s Insurance Dispute Resolution Practice Group. She co-chaired the firm’s national recruiting committee. Neubauer also served as a law clerk for Barbara Crabb, then-chief judge of the U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin. A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School with honors, Neubauer received her degree in 1987. She is a member of the Order of Coif. In 1979, Neubauer received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she majored in political science. Neubauer is on the Supreme Court Finance Committee and is co-chair of the Wisconsin Bar Association’s Bench and Bar Committee and chair of the Bench/Bar Court Funding Subcommittee. She previously served on the Planning Subcommittee of the Planning and Policy Advisory Committee, the Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court Committee on Community Outreach. Neubauer is a recipient of the Lynford Lardner Community Service Award in recognition of her volunteer work and civic involvement and a recipient of the Association for Women Lawyer’s Community Service Award. She also was named a “Woman of Influence” for her mentoring work by The Business Journal. Neubauer has served as a board member of the Racine Area United Way, ABCD, the Equal Justice Coalition n/k/a Wisconsin Equal Justice Fund and Legal Action of Wisconsin. She also served as Vice-President of the Racine Area United Way Marketing and Resource Development Committee. She has been a reading tutor in the Racine public elementary schools through the United Way Schools of Hope program, a big sister with a Big Sisters of Greater Racine, and a mentor for breast cancer survivors through ABCD, After Breast Cancer Diagnosis. Neubauer lives in Racine with her husband, Jeff. She is the proud mother of three children. MILWAUKEE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT Former Gov. Scott Walker looms large over this race, which pits 2018 Walker appointee Andrew Jones, 50, against assistant public defender Danielle Shelton, 54. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that Shelton signed a petition to recall Walker back in 2011. The winner of this sole contested circuit court race will be elected to a six-year term, and will make a cool $141,773 a year. Learn more about the candidates (and read their official bios) below. ANDREW JONES In his 24 years as an attorney, he practiced at every level of the federal and state judicial systems, from the federal and state trial courts in Wisconsin and New York, to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, to the Wisconsin and United States Supreme Courts. He tried numerous cases before juries, courts, administrative law judges, and arbitrators, and he argued many cases before the state and federal appellate courts. In his practice, he advised public employees, elected officials, governmental entities, private companies, and individuals in a wide array of litigation disputes. Among other areas of the law, his cases involved constitutional, municipal, compliance, employment, labor, health care, land use, consumer, contractual, and class action issues. He has served in numerous leadership positions, both within his prior law firms, where he was a member of the board of directors of both Husch Blackwell LLP (700+ attorneys; 19 offices) and Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C. (140+ attorneys; 4 offices), and in the community, where he currently serves on the board of directors for the Milwaukee Bar Association Foundation and Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. He is a native of Milwaukee, having been raised in Shorewood by his parents, Bob, a retired educator at UWM, and Mary, a retired librarian for the federal courts in Milwaukee. His sister, Katie, and brother, Brant, are both public high school teachers. He has been married to his wife, Amy, for 22 years, and they have two daughters, ages 15 and 14. ​He assumed his seat on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court on September 10, 2018, succeeding now Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet in Branch 40 of the Circuit Court. DANIELLE SHELTON Danielle Shelton is a candidate for Milwaukee County Circuit Court in Branch 40. Danielle is a mom, a U.S. Army veteran, and an experienced litigator who formerly worked in finance. She has spent nearly two decades fighting to ensure justice for all people and is committed to being a fair judge who will help keep Milwaukee safe and strong. Danielle raised two daughters in Shorewood, where she currently lives, and grew up primarily on the north side of Milwaukee. She attended public schools, earned a bachelor’s degree from UW-Milwaukee, and received her law degree from Marquette University Law School.<doc-sep>After several months of campaigning, Wisconsin entered election night to decide new city council members, the mayor of Madison and a State Supreme Court judge. Madison Mayoral Race Former District 12 alderperson Satya Rhodes-Conway has been elected Madison’s new mayor, defeating 22-year incumbent Mayor Paul Soglin. Rhodes-Conway served on Madison’s City Council for six years and works at the Wisconsin Center on Strategy as managing director of the Mayor’s Innovation Project — an organization that collaborates with mayors nationwide in an effort to improve city policy. Rhodes-Conway’s campaign focused on issues of climate change, affordable housing accessibility and bus rapid transit in Madison, and she will be the city’s first openly gay mayor. With similar takes on city’s most pressing issues, Madison mayoral candidates cite different ways of tackling themWith just one week until the Madison mayoral election, candidates Satya Rhodes-Conway and incumbent Paul Soglin gathered for a debate Read… City Council District 8 University of Wisconsin freshman Avra Reddy won the city council seat for District 8 after campaigning against UW freshman Matthew Mitnick. Reddy will take over for Alder Zach Wood, who was elected to the council in 2015 as a UW student himself. UW freshman Avra Reddy hosts campaign kickoff partyAvra Reddy hosted an intimate campaign kickoff party Tuesday night, where friends, family and community members gathered in support. Reddy Read… Madison School Board Female representation continued down the ballot, with local public school advocate Cristiana Carusi defeating Kaleem Caire for Madison School Board’s third seat. Ali Janae Muldrow, who attended Madison public schools until adulthood, followed suit, defeating David Blaska for Madison School Board’s fourth seat. Rounding out the school board races, Ananda Mirilli, president of Madison’s Latino Education Council and board member at Madison Area Technical College, defeated TJ Mertz for Madison School Board’s fifth seat. State Supreme Court The race between Lisa Neubauer and Brian Hagedorn is still being decided. The Badger Herald will update this article as more information comes to light.<doc-sep>
On April 2, spring election will be held across the state of Wisconsin. Positions which will appear on the ballot include candidates for Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court, mayor of Madison, school district board of education and Madison’s alder positions. In the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, candidates are elected to serve ten-year terms. The state constitution allows for no more than one justice to be elected each year. The candidates on the Wisconsin Supreme Court ballot are Lisa Neubauer and Brian Hagedorn. Lisa Neubauer was elected to the appeals court in 2008 and re-elected in 2014. She has been chief judge of the court since 2015, has spent two decades as an attorney in private practice and clerked for U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb. Neubauer is a common liberal favorite, with deep-running democratic ties. Her husband was a democratic lawmaker for four terms, state chairman for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996 and a member of a Democratic National Committee. Neubauer and her husband have also given $105,000 to liberal and democratic candidates and causes. Despite apparent declining faith in voter system, vote remains integral, panel saysExperts in the fields of political science, policy and economics came together Tuesday evening in Memorial Union to discuss the Read… Hagedorn served as a law clerk for state Supreme Court Judge Michael Gableman, assistant attorney general, worked in private practice and was former Gov. Scott Walker’s chief legal counsel for almost five years. Walker appointed him to the state appeals court in 2015 where Hagedorn won the election two years later. Hagedorn also has deep-running GOP ties and is popular amongst Conservatives, according to the Journal Sentinel. On his 2015 application for a judicial appointment, he claimed he was a member of the Kenosha County Republican Party from 2005-09. Mayoral candidate Satya Rhodes-Conway surpasses Soglin in fundraisingMayoral candidate Satya Rhodes-Conway has surpassed incumbent Mayor Paul Soglin in campaign fundraising a new report said. Rhodes-Conway raised $125,754 Read… In the Madison mayoral election, candidates who advanced past the primary are current incumbent Mayor Paul Soglin and Managing Director for the Mayor’s Innovation Project Satya Rhodes-Conway. Soglin, the current mayor who has held the position for a sum total of almost 22 years, has said that more still needs to be done to increase job opportunities, housing availability and access to health care. Rhodes-Conway has listed bus rapid transit, racial disparities and climate change as her top priorities. Rhodes-Conway also surpassed Soglin in campaign fundraising, raising $125,754 to Soglin’s $77,265 in the latest reporting period. That period covered from Feb. 5 through March 18 and was the last campaign finance report before the election. Two UW freshmen declare candidacy for campus seat on Madison City CouncilTwo University of Wisconsin freshmen declared they are running for the campus district in the Madison City Council after incumbent Read… Two University of Wisconsin students are running for the Madison City Council for the 8th District seat, which covers most of the campus area. The seat is being vacated by Zach Wood, elected in 2015. Matthew Mitnick, 18, is an electoral intern with Wisconsin Conservation Voters, according to his website. He is the President and founder of the Westlake Action Team, a nonprofit chapter providing the same opportunities to low-income youth. He is a district intern with California Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, a legislative affairs intern with Associated Students of Madison and student chapter president with the International City-County Management Association. Mitnick supports affordable housing, public safety — including lighting the Lakeshore path — flood prevention and sustainability, amnesty for medical care, increasing student engagement, boosting arts programs, diversity and transparency. He also prioritizes issues such as supporting neighborhood associations, late night transit, social justice, a balanced budget and LGBTQ+ rights. Avra Reddy, 19, was a student representative for District 127 School Board in Grayslake, Illinois from 2016-18, according to her website. She moved to Madison in 2016 to work on the 2016 election. Reddy prioritizes housing issues, public safety, sustainability, transit and inclusivity. She supported the banning of conversion therapy in Madison and also supports improving sexual assault services at UW. Polls are open 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. Voting locations based on your address can be found here.