When Appeals Court Chief Judge Lisa Neubauer announced that she was going to be a candidate for the Wisconsin State Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Shirley Abrahamson she must have thought she was sounding like a breath of fresh air! She commented that it was unfortunate that courts are partisan playgrounds and there is nothing good about outside money in court elections. I believe she was trying to say we need to keep political parties out of non-partisan elections. In retrospect it was almost as if she wanted to silence her conservative critics.

Then I did a little research about this pro-non-partisan Supreme Court candidate and, like the late, great Paul Harvey, found “the rest of the story”. Judge Neubauer started her judicial career as a Governor Doyle (Dem) appointee to the Appeals Court. Previously she was employed by a law firm. The media reports that she is backed by Democrats and she has the same campaign team that successfully managed liberal-leaning Justice Rebecca Dallet’s election to the Supreme Court in 2018. Judge Neubauer’s husband, Jeffery, was an aide to former Democratic Congressman Les Aspin; spent four terms as a Democrat in the Wisconsin Assembly; spent four years as Chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin; was Bill Clinton’s Wisconsin campaign manager in ’92 and ’96; and was a former member of the Democratic National Committee. Their twenty-something year old daughter was elected as a Democrat to the State Assembly in January of 2018.

Consider all this and do you really think Judge Lisa Neubauer will be a truly non-partisan Justice if elected to the Supreme Court. I don’t.

Appeals Court Judge Brian Hagedorn is the other viable candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He is considered a Conservative Constitutionalist that will interpret the law as it is written and not based on popularity polls, current trends, or what he thinks it should be. Like Judge Neubauer, Judge Hagedorn started his judicial career as a Governor’s appointee to the Court of Appeals, except this time is was Governor Walker (Rep).

Consider everything about a Supreme Court candidate, or any political candidate for that matter, before blindly voting because something sounds nice. Do your homework and discover “the rest of the story”!