ELECTION RESULTS: Lazar wins Court of Appeals seat; many other judges elected in uncontested bids

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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.
• MILWAUKEE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 5: Kristela Cervera wins uncontested.
• MILWAUKEE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 14: Christopher Foley, Sr. wins uncontested.
• MILWAUKEE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 25: Incumbent Stephanie Rothstein did not seek re-election. Nidhi Kashyap wins uncontested.
• MILWAUKEE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 31: Hannah Dugan wins uncontested.
• MILWAUKEE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 34: Glenn Yamahiro wins uncontested.
• MILWAUKEE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 44: Gwendolyn Connolly wins uncontested.
• MILWAUKEE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 45: Jean Marie Kies wins uncontested.
• MONROE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 2: Mark Goodman wins uncontested.
• OCONTO COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 2: Incumbent Jay Conley defeats challenger Ed Burke.
• OUTAGAMIE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 4: Yadira Rein wins uncontested.
• OUTAGAMIE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 7: Mark Schroeder wins uncontested.
• PIERCE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE: Elizabeth Rohl wins uncontested.
• PORTAGE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 2: Incumbent Robert Shannon did not seek re-election. Louis John Molepske, Jr. defeats Stephen Sawyer.
• PORTAGE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 3: Patricia Baker wins uncontested.
• RACINE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 2: Eugene Gasiorkiewicz wins uncontested.
• RACINE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 4: Mark Nielsen wins uncontested.
• RACINE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 5: Kristin Cafferty wins uncontested.
• RUSK COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE: Incumbent Steven Anderson did not seek re-election. Annette Barna wins uncontested.
• SAINT CROIX COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 4: R. Michael Waterman wins uncontested.
• SAUK COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 1: Incumbent Michael Screnock narrowly defeats his challenger Blake Duren by fewer than 400 votes.
• SAUK COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 2: Wendy Klicko wins uncontested.
• VILAS COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 1: Martha Milanowski wins uncontested.
• VILAS COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 2: Daniel Overbey defeats Meg Colleen O’Marro for the vacant seat.
• WALWORTH COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 2: Daniel Johnson wins uncontested.
• WALWORTH COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 4: David Reddy wins uncontested.
• WAUSHARA COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 2: Scott Blader wins the vacant seat uncontested.
• WINNEBAGO COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 3: Incumbent Barbara Hart Key did not seek re-election. Bryan Keberlein defeats Lisa Krueger.
• WINNEBAGO COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 4: Challenger Mike Gibbs defeats Incumbent LaKeisha Haase.
• WINNEBAGO COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 5: John Jorgensen wins uncontested.

– Ali Teske of the Wisconsin Law Journal contributed to this article.