Wisconsin is about as evenly divided a state politically as it gets. However, when Scot Walker (remember him?) became Gov. a vicious effort to remake the state including state and federal election maps began. Stacking the state’s Supreme Court was key to the GOP power grab and they fought like hell to keep that advantage. And lost it. Now, fairness is returning and the Chief Judge has thrown in the towel and won’t be running for re-election.
This could be a sign of things to come in other places. I’m not kidding when I say the GOP fought like hell, sliming and cheating to maintain a stranglehold on things there. About the only thing they didn’t do was pass a law that took an ugly chapter of our history when slaves were only counted as three-fifths of a person – in this case a law saying votes for Democrats in statewide races would only count as three-fifths of a vote. Don’t think they didn’t consider trying it! However, as reported by Alternet Wisconsin Republicans are giving up on trying to cheat their way to dominance. And that’s official with them not only being in the minority on the State Supreme Court but its Chief Justice giving up:
Once a fiercely-contested state supreme court that embroiled the whole state of Wisconsin, Republicans appear to have given up on the possibility of reclaiming the court majority and influencing Wisconsin policy.
Now with Democrats holding the court majority and striking down Republican gerrymandered state maps, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports conservative Chief Justice Annette Ziegler will not seek a third term in 2027, she announced Monday.
How fiercely did Republicans contest keeping control of that court? Well, in an election last year that gave Democrats a chance of regaining a majority Elon Musk swooped in offering $2 MILLIOLN dollar checks to signature gatherers! In the end it didn’t matter and in fact might have generated backlash:
But Musk came up empty after Dane County Judge Susan Crawford defeated conservative Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel in April 2025 — in perhaps one of the first backlash votes against President Donald Trump last year.
The Sentinel reports that three days after securing their fledgling majority, the court’s four liberal justices voted to limit Ziegler’s power as chief justice – a move she called at the time “an attempt to gut” her constitutional authority by “rogue justices.”
The handwriting was already on the wall from another state supreme court election as you can see from the title pic. As for Ziegler she kept up the effort for a while, By effort I mean just making sh*t up:
Last year, Ziegler — now in the court’s minority — argued that the use of a more balanced election map would violate the U.S. Constitution. She cited a 2022 Supreme Court decision, Moore v. Harper, for the proposition that state courts’ role in congressional redistricting is “exceedingly limited.”
But Slate writer Mark Stern walloped that argument, reporting that “Moore said no such thing. That quotation appears nowhere in the ruling. To the contrary, Moore held the opposite, concluding that state courts can play a legitimate, meaningful role in congressional redistricting.”
But things are going to be a whole lot more fair in Wisconsin now. It’s been razor thin margins in statewide and national elections for a long time now and I’m not sure that will change much. Except perhaps in a wave year which this one could well be. Instead of a six to two split in the Congressional delegation we’re looking in a normal year there of 4-4 but we might grab an extra seat. That’s bad news for Moses Mikey Johnson and Trump.
I say that because the headline of the linked article might be prescient:
Discouraged Republicans surrender a once hotly-contested political battleground: report
I’m enjoying that first word, “discouraged” more than I can express. As an athlete when I was young a common saying on many locker room walls went “Hustle is contagious – will you spread it or will you catch it?” Yeah, it’s corny but there’s more motivation in there than folks realize. You know what? The same is true about giving up or losing heart, thinking you might not win so why bother. THAT feeling spreads too, sometimes like wildfire. I saw it on the fact of opponent when objectively the score was still close enough that fans thought things could turn around. But you could see in the faces of opponents they were done. The only question would be how badly their ass whipping was reflected in the final score.
More Republicans than Democrats have chosen not to run for re-election to Congress and I suspect that margin will increase. I can assure you when Ziegler told GOPers she was thinking of retiring some begged her to stay on. But I’ll bet others just said ‘Hmmm, maybe it’s time for me to go too.’ Yes, we can expect plenty of dirty tricks and cheating in states around the country but this might be a sign that GOP leaders have accepted a cold, hard new reality. In other words actual reality in that MAGAs are angry. They’re even in significant numbers if not angry at Trump specifically then questioning whether he lied to them. Without HUGE numbers of MAGAs Republicans in lots of places are in deep trouble.
It’s too early to say Ziegler’s giving up is a bellweather for a broader ‘give up” attitude to take hold in the GOP. Still, Wisconsin has been a major front in the GOP’s battle to scheme and cheat their way to dominance at a state level. Other’s have copied it and looking at things now, some might see (as happened not long ago in Virginia) legislatures flip, or say in North Carolina (where I live) one of the most viciously gerrymandered super majorities suddenly become more balanced. Enough so that a still majority might look at Wisconsin and accept things are going to have to be done differently.
For now we have something positive to point to. My bet is that Ziegler will be replaced by yet another Democrat ensuring fairness continues to return to the Badger State. And with filing deadlines coming up in a lot of states a rash of Republicans looking at this and feeling discouraged enough to walk away too. Hey, in the midst of so much going wrong I think it’s good to take a positive development and hope it’s a harbinger of better things to come.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
Thank you for this, Denis. I really needed the pick-me-up.