April 6, 2011

Dead Heat in Wisconsin Supreme Court Election

By MONICA DAVEY

DELAFIELD, Wis. — The contest for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat remained too close to call Wednesday morning in balloting that some voters viewed as a referendum on the state’s Republican leaders and their cuts to collective bargaining.

Until emotions boiled over in the state capital weeks ago on questions over labor unions, public workers and budget cutting, Justice David T. Prosser, who was seen by some as part of a conservative majority on the court, had been widely expected to coast to a second 10-year term.

But election officials reported an extremely tight race as Tuesday night wore on, with a higher than expected turnout: Justice Prosser was in a dead heat with JoAnne Kloppenburg, an assistant attorney general who was not widely known through the state before this race. With 99 percent of the vote reported Wednesday morning, the pair were separated by fewer than 600 votes from among more than 1.4 million cast. The leader had flipped again and again throughout the night on Tuesday.

A recount appeared possible. State provisions allow a candidate to request one, and with a slim margin, a recount need not be paid for by either candidate.

The close outcome followed a highly personal, frenzied contest which drew millions of dollars in advertising from national conservative and liberal groups. Despite its designation as a non-partisan race, the contest morphed into a referendum on Scott Walker, the new Republican governor who during his first three months in office pushed for a law cutting benefits and collective bargaining rights for public employees.

Whatever the final result, some Democrats and union supporters here said the results — and the showing of Ms. Kloppenburg, who has never been a judge — should serve as a warning to Mr. Walker and Republican lawmakers as they carve out more of their agenda.

Republicans, meanwhile, argued that the closeness of the race reflected the strength of Mr. Walker’s supporters, a group that had seemed to be all but invisible during weeks of noisy anti-Walker protests in Madison, even in the face of a highly energized union base.

For his part, Justice Prosser, 68, has long acknowledged conservative Republican roots but insisted that his 12 years on the court reflected a nonpartisan, middle-of-the-road approach, and that a judicial election should have never been transformed into a proxy fight over the governor. He was appointed to the court in 1998 by Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, a Republican, and elected to his first term in 2001.

Sixteen state senators — an equal number from each party — are subjects of recall drives in the aftermath of the collective bargaining fight, and the high turnout and close race were expected to fuel those battles, which could result in more elections this year.

So far, residents have filed signatures in an effort to recall at least one Republican senator, Dan Kapanke, and people bearing clipboards waited outside polling places on Tuesday gathering signatures aimed at removing more.

Though state judicial elections rarely attract national attention, the race here did — one early test of how voters were viewing Republican leaders who won control of numerous spots in legislatures and governorships last November, including those in Wisconsin.

Through a bitter, debate-heavy race, Justice Prosser had worked hard to separate himself from Mr. Walker’s record. Justice Prosser had served as the Republican speaker of the State Assembly at the same time that Mr. Walker was a young lawmaker in the chamber. And though Justice Prosser insisted that he could count on one hand the number of times he had met Mr. Walker since he joined the bench, the justice is also viewed by many as part of a 4-to-3 conservative majority on the court.

Ms. Kloppenburg, 57, had repeatedly said that she would have been an impartial, nonpartisan and independent justice if elected. Still, some voters said they saw her as a liberal counterpoint to the efforts of conservatives, and perhaps ultimately a deciding vote against Mr. Walker’s collective bargaining law, which is being contested in the courts.

The election took place as Senate Democrats returned to work in Madison on Tuesday for the first scheduled session since the fight over collective bargaining had brought business in the state capital to a virtual standstill.

After Mr. Walker proposed a “budget repair bill,” which cut benefits and collective bargaining rights to state workers, in February, demonstrators descended in and around the Capitol for days, emotional public hearings on the matter carried on late into days and nights, and Senate Democrats — a minority in that chamber — fled the state to prevent the Republicans from calling for a vote. All the while, the campaign between Justice Prosser and Ms. Kloppenburg was growing more intense and bitter.

After weeks at a standoff, the Republicans pushed the bill through without the Democrats by changing language in the legislation and swiftly calling for a vote. And despite threats issued weeks ago from the Republicans of contempt findings against the Democrats or even arrests, business proceeded normally on Tuesday. For the moment, court challenges have prevented the cuts to collective bargaining rights from taking effect.