YIPPEEE!!! Sanity Returns To Wisconsin!

As if my day wasn’t made by watching Trump grumble his way through is arraignment, I just got the cherry on top of my sundae.

MSNBC, as well as The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are reporting that liberal candidate Janet Protasiewicz has beaten MAGAt Daniel Kelly for the open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. To show how important this seat is, it was the most expensive state Supreme Court seat in history, logging in at over $40 million.

And it was worth every penny of it. Not just because of what it means for  Wisconsin, but for what it means nationally. Going into the election the GOP held a 4-3 advantage. To show how dangerous that is, the Wisconsin Supreme Court only voted 4-3 to certify the results of the 2020 election for Biden.

First let’s look at why this election is so critical for the state of Wisconsin. As we speak, there are two critical cases weaving their way through the court system, destined to be heard by the Supreme court in the next year.

When the SCOTUS overturned Roe v Wade, one of the first states to knee jerk was Wisconsin. The GOP dominated Wisconsin legislature moved t make an 2849 law banning abortion the law of the land. A 4-3 GOP Supreme Court would have banned abortion in Wisconsin. But now, with a 4-3 Democratic advantage, abortion will remain free and unfettered in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is widely acknowledged as the most gerrymandered state in the country. And that’s why, while the Democrats regularly roll up a 53-54% majority in statewide vote, they never able to make a dent in the GOP’s majority, either in the state legislature, or the US House.

There is a lawsuit working its way through the Wisconsin state courts right now challenging the legality of the GOP majorities 2021 redistricting map. That suit is scheduled to hit the Supreme Court in the next 6-8 months. And if the new liberal court rules the map unconstitutional, then the Wisconsin Supreme Court will have the right to redraw the map, much like the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did a few years ago.

And that’s huge for democracy in Wisconsin. Because a realistically redrawn map would not only even the odds for US House seats, but would also even the playing field for state legislative and Senate seats, possibly breaking the GOP’s stranglehold on the legislature.

But now let’s look at how this election can help to shape the landscape for the 2024 general election. Without a doubt the Marquee issue in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election was abortion. And the results weren’t even close. The last tally I saw showed the results at 57-43% for the Democrat.

Which is just another 5-11 alarm for the GOP going into 2024. The GOP is continuing their race to the bottom to create the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, but now, here in true battleground state Wisconsin, they’re confronted with a 17% blowout for the protection of abortion rights.

All in all this was a good day. There are other issues expected to come before the court, from workers rights to education, and now the court has a liberal bent to it. Maybe the people of Wisconsin are clawing their way back to true democracy.