(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Wisconsin Republicans place conservative referendums on same ballot as crucial Supreme Court race [1]

['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-01-19  

LeMahieu said that the non-binding results could, in Venhuizen’s words, “be used to back a push to require some Medicaid recipients to look for work,” but no one is under any illusions that this is about anything other than boosting the GOP’s prospects in the Supreme Court election. While that race will determine whether progressives will have a majority on the state’s highest court for the first time in a long time, this advisory opinion could help Republicans turn out conservative voters who aren’t already motivated by the massive stakes in front of them. (Voters in the 8th Senate District in the Milwaukee suburbs also have an important special election that day where the GOP’s super majority is on the line.)

The legislature also voted to place the proposed constitutional amendment on the April 4 ballot that, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel explains, “would allow judges to consider the totality of the circumstances of a defendant, including a person's past criminal record and the need to protect the public from ‘serious harm,’ when setting the monetary amount of bail.”

State law requires two consecutive legislative sessions to approve the same version of amendments before they can go before voters, and it cleared this hurdle last year before advancing again this week. The measure got the support of 10 Democrats in the Assembly on Thursday two days after a pair of Democratic state senators also backed it: One of those senators, Brad Pfaff, was the one Democrat in either chamber to advance the advisory referendum.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow, who is one of the two conservatives running for the Supreme Court, quickly made it clear she was strongly in support of the amendment. Dorow, notably, presided over the high-profile trial where Darrell Brooks was sentenced to life in prison in November for killing six people at the 2021 Waukesha Christmas parade: The amendment, which was first proposed in 2017, became a GOP priority after that tragedy, with supporters highlighting how Brooks had posted a $1,000 bail for a different case two days before.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/19/2148160/-Wisconsin-Republicans-place-conservative-referendums-on-same-ballot-as-crucial-Supreme-Court-race

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/