WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — Voters in southeastern Wisconsin elevated a conservative-backed Waukesha County judge to a state Court of Appeals seat on Tuesday in a race that took a sharp partisan turn and featured ads referring to the Waukesha Christmas parade killings.
Maria Lazar defeated the incumbent Court of Appeals Judge Lori Kornblum, who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in November, for a six-year term on Wisconsin’s second-highest court.
Though the race was nonpartisan on the ballot, support for the candidates broke along party lines. Kornblum had the backing of the state Democratic Party and labor unions. Republicans lined up behind Lazar, including three conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justices, four former Republican congressmen and several county Republican parties.
Kornblum spent more than 20 years as a prosecutor in Milwaukee County before going into private practice in 2014. Lazar was in private practice for 20 years before joining the state Department of Justice in 2010 under Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.
She ran unopposed for Waukesha County Circuit Court in 2015.
Lazar ran TV and radio spots attacking Kornblum as “a liberal, appointed by Gov. Tony Evers to legislate from the bench.” The spots also highlighted that Kornblum worked in the district attorney’s office under John Chisholm, a Democrat.
An outside group supporting Lazar also ran a spot linking Kornblum to Chisholm and blaming him in part for the Waukesha Christmas parade attack where Darrell Brooks Jr. is charged with killing six people and injuring more than 60.
One of Chisholm’s assistant prosecutors recommended what Chisholm called “inappropriately low” $1,000 bail for Brooks, which he posted days before the parade. Kornblum left Chisholm’s office seven years before the parade deaths.
One of Kornblum’s ads attacked Lazar for a sentence she imposed that was lower than prosecutors recommended for David Scharlat, a former Brookfield police officer and federal agent who was found guilty in 2019 of sexually assaulting a woman with whom he’d had an ongoing sexual relationship.
Here are other results from state judicial elections held Tuesday:
COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE DISTRICT 3: Thomas Hruz wins uncontested.
COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE DISTRICT 4: Brian Blanchard wins uncontested.
ADAMS COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 2: Tania Bonnett wins uncontested for the vacant seat.
BARRON COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 1: James Babler wins uncontested.
CRAWFORD COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE: Lynn Marie Rider wins uncontested.
DANE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 3: Incumbent Valerie Bailey-Rihn did not seek re-election. Diane Schlipper wins uncontested.
DANE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 4: Everett Mitchell wins uncontested.
DANE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 5: Nicholas McNamara wins uncontested.
DANE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 14: John Hyland wins uncontested.
DANE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 15: Stephen Ehlke wins uncontested.
EAU CLAIRE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 1: John Francis Manydeeds wins uncontested.
EAU CLAIRE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 6: Beverly Wickstrom wins uncontested for the vacant seat.
FOND DU LAC COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 2: Incumbent Peter Grimm did not seek re-election. Laura Lavey wins uncontested.
FOND DU LAC COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 4: Tricia Walker wins uncontested.
FOND DU LAC COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 5: Incumbent Paul Czisny did not seek re-election. Douglas Edelstein wins uncontested.
IOWA COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE: Incumbent Margaret Koehler did not seek re-election. Matt Allen defeats Rhonda Hazen.
KEWAUNEE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE: Incumbent Keith Mehn did not run for re-election and died from cancer in December 2021. Jeffrey Ronald Wisnicky defeated Kimberly Hardtke.
LINCOLN COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 1: Incumbent Jay Tlusty did not seek re-election. Galen Bayne-Allison wins uncontested.
MARATHON COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 2: Incumbent Greg Huber did not seek re-election. Rick Cveykus defeats William Harris.
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