In local judicial races, one of two incumbent-appointees ousted

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In the three contested races for state judge positions, the victorious candidates include a Milwaukee public defender, a Cedarburg litigator and a former Milwaukee civil litigator.

In Milwaukee County, an assistant public defender, Danielle Shelton, defeated the incumbent appointee, Andrew Jones, a former partner at Husch Blackwell. Former Gov. Scott Walker appointed Jones to the bench last year to replace Rebecca Dallet, who won the spring election for Supreme Court Justice.

Incumbent judicial candidates tend to retain their seats when they seek re-election. That was not the case, though, for Jones, who lost by a 14 percent margin, according to unofficial results from the election on Tuesday.

Shelton got 18,243 more votes than Jones, taking 71,647 votes, or about 57.1 percent of the total. Jones got 53,404 votes, or about 42.5 percent of the total.

Shelton is an assistant state public defender in the State Public Defender’s Milwaukee Trial Division.

Meanwhile in Racine County, the incumbent judge Jon Fredrickson successfully retained his seat despite a challenge from the solo practitioner Jamie McClendon.

Walker appointed Fredrickson in September to replace Judge John Constantine, who had retired. Before his appointment, Fredrickson had been a civil litigator at the Milwaukee firm Kravit Hovel & Krawczyk.

Fredrickson won by a 19.5 percent margin, taking 6,094 more votes than McClendon, according to unofficial election results.

Fredrickson got 18,607 votes, which was about 59.6 percent of the total vote. McClendon got 12,513 votes, which was about 40.1 percent of the vote.

McClendon started her practice in Racine in 2017, after working for years as a public defender in Racine and Ozaukee counties.

In Ozaukee County, the Cedarburg litigator Steve Cain defeated the Milwaukee attorney Angela Foy for Judge Joseph Voiland’s seat on Branch 2. Voiland chose not to run this year.

Cain took 16 percent more votes than Foy, or about 4,152 more votes, according to unofficial election results. Cain took 14,801 votes, or about 58 percent of the total. Meanwhile, Foy took 10,649 votes, or about 41.8 percent of the total.

Foy is a shareholder at Halling & Cayo in Milwaukee, and Cain is a partner at Stippich, Selin & Cain in Cedarburg.