On Tuesday, Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge Lisa Neubauer conceded last week’s extremely close contest for the state Supreme Court to fellow appeals court Judge Brian Hagedorn after a county-level canvass of the vote failed to materially change Hagedorn’s 6,000-vote margin on election night. Thanks to Hagedorn's win, the conservative majority on the bench expands to five-to-two, denying progressives the chance to flip the court next year.
Neubauer, a widely respected jurist who'd been named to her post on the appeals court by former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, enjoyed the support of 98 percent of fellow judges who endorsed in the race to succeed retiring liberal Justice Shirley Abrahamson. She also had the backing of unions and progressive organizations like Planned Parenthood. Hagedorn, by contrast, was a vocal conservative who was appointed by none other than former Gov. Scott Walker.
While Hagedorn attempted to wave away his extremist beliefs with thin promises that they wouldn’t impact his actions on the bench, a series of revelations about his hatred of gay people kept pouring out over the course of the campaign: He'd penned blog posts arguing that striking down laws against sodomy would lead to legalized bestiality; founded a school that bans gay students and teachers and expels pupils if their parents are gay; and accepted thousands of dollars to give speeches to an anti-gay organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center labels a hate group.
Hagedorn refused to apologize for any of this, and his record proved to be so repellent that the influential Wisconsin Realtors Association, which had backed many conservative Supreme Court candidates in recent years, yanked its endorsement. Most other groups also kept away from him, leading to a 14-to-1 advantage in outside spending for Neubauer until the Republican State Leadership Committee (which ordinarily supports legislative candidates) parachuted in with a seven-figure rescue in the final week of the race.
It appears to have made the difference. And while conservatives will have to play defense a year from now, when another Walker appointee, Dan Kelly, is up for election, Hagedorn’s win ensures they’ll retain their majority heading into the next round of redistricting. That in turn almost certainly means the Wisconsin Supreme Court won’t act as a check on the extreme gerrymanders that Republicans have perpetrated for years.