All contributions to political candidates and independent expenditure political action committees are publicly disclosed.

Former Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Linda Clifford had a target on her back from the early days of her 2007 campaign.

Legions of lawyers are ready to enter the fray in case Election Day turns on a legal challenge. One nightmare scenario would be for the results in a battleground state like Wisconsin or Ohio to be too close to call, with thousands of absentee or provisional ballots yet to be counted.

Ideally, every voter put serious thought into the state Supreme Court candidates’ qualifications before casting a ballot in the last election.

There is an expression that goes, “The personal is political.”