It’s Election Day in Wisconsin and Chicago
Voters in Wisconsin and Chicago go to the polls today to decide two of this year’s most-watched elections: Chicago’s mayoral runoff and Wisconsin’s state supreme court general election. Here’s one final look at each race.
In Wisconsin, voters will decide the ideological balance of their state supreme court in what has become the most expensive state court election in U.S. history.
According to The Hill’s Caroline Vakil, “The race has become one of the most expensive and closely watched contests in the country, as the court could weigh in on the state’s 1849 abortion ban, redistricting, and possible future election result disputes.”
Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal, and former Justice Daniel Kelly, a conservative, are running for the seat of retiring Justice Patience Roggensack, whose term ends in July 2023. While Wisconsin’s supreme court elections are officially nonpartisan, the current court is considered to have a 4-3 conservative majority. Roggensack is a member of that conservative majority.
If Kelly wins, the conservative majority will remain. If Protasiewicz wins, the court will switch to a 4-3 liberal majority for the first time in 15 years.
According to WisPolitics, campaigns and satellite groups had spent more than $44 million in the race as of March 30, three times the $15 million spent in the previous record holder, a 2004 Illinois Supreme Court race.
EMILY’s List, Naral Pro-Choice America, and the court’s three liberal justices endorsed Protasiewicz.
Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action, and Pro-Life Wisconsin endorsed Kelly. Three of the four conservative justices, including Roggensack, endorsed Kelly.
Tonight’s winner will be elected to a 10-year term. Wisconsin’s next supreme court election is in 2025, when liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley’s term expires.
Voters will also decide three ballot questions. Two are constitutional measures that relate to conditions for the release of an accused person before conviction and cash bail. The third is an advisory question that asks voters whether able-bodied childless adults should have to apply for work before receiving welfare benefits.
Wisconsin, alongside Pennsylvania, is one of two states holding elections for state supreme court in 2023.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, voters will decide whether Cook County commissioner Brandon Johnson or former CEO of Chicago Public Schools Paul Vallas will succeed incumbent Lori Lightfoot as mayor.
Johnson and Vallas advanced from a field of nine candidates in the Feb. 28 general election. Lightfoot finished third, becoming the first mayor in 34 years not to win re-election.
Chicago’s elections are also officially nonpartisan, but candidates are typically affiliated with one of the major political parties. Johnson and Vallas are both Democrats. The last Republican mayor of Chicago, William Thompson, left office in 1931.
According to The Washington Post’s Kim Bellware, “[Vallas and Johnson] have starkly different visions for how to run the nation’s third-largest city.”
“Paul Vallas […] campaigned on a tough law-and-order message, calling for more police officers and cracking down on misdemeanors like retail theft and public nuisance offenses. Brandon Johnson […] energized liberal voters with a message of improving public safety instead by investing in social services, mental health care, education and housing,” Bellware wrote.
Johnson’s endorsers include Sens. Bernie Sanders (I) and Elizabeth Warren (D), as well as more than 30 state and local officials. General election candidates Jesús Garcia and Kambium Buckner also endorsed Johnson.
Vallas’ endorsers include Sen. Dick Durbin (D), former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and more than 20 local officials. General election candidates Sophia King, Roderick Sawyer, and Willie Nelson also endorsed Vallas.
Johnson also has the endorsement of the Chicago Teachers Union, while Vallas’ has the support of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police. “Both unions offer considerable muscle,” wrote The New York Times’ Jonathan Weisman. “The teachers union has put $1.2 million behind Mr. Johnson, with a further $1 million coming from the national and Illinois federations of teachers. Armies of door knockers and phone bankers are pitching in, while the police union presses its members to volunteer for the final Vallas sprint,” Weisman said.
This year’s contest is the third consecutive mayoral election to go to a runoff since Chicago mayoral elections became nonpartisan in 1999.
Fourteen city council seats are also on the ballot. Elsewhere in Illinois, voters in the state capital of Springfield will also be casting ballots for mayor. Incumbent Jim Langfelder and Misty Bucher are running in that election.
Voters in Alaska, California, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma are also going to the polls today. Click here to read about all the key elections taking place on April 4!
This post was written by Juan Garcia De Paredes at Ballotpedia. Click here to read more.
