It has been, and now will remain, the greatest privilege and pleasure of my professional life to serve as a judge on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. I will be forever grateful to the voters who elected me in 2008 and 2014, and re-elected me this year! I am also so grateful to this grassroots team that has stood by me in challenging times and powered us to victory.
I care so deeply about, and we have fought so hard for, the rule of law and the critical role that fair, impartial, independent, and competent courts play in preserving and protecting our liberties and our democracy. My service every single day on the court for the past twelve years reflects that commitment. But this is about so much more than this race. I love our country and our democracy – and it broke my heart over these last two weeks to talk to so many voters who had such challenges in casting their votes. But I am an optimist, because I believe the will of people will prevail. Today, that happened. The voters spoke, despite what happened last week—overcoming the callous disregard for our people’s legitimate health and safety concerns, coupled with the gross indifference to their constitutional right to vote. This is wholly unacceptable in a well-functioning democracy. It must never happen again.
We forge ahead together in the fight for our democracy.
Honestly, this is a somewhat surprising result. Eleven years ago, judicial elections in our state changed dramatically and much for the worse. What had been a generally merit-based and bi-partisan election process became highly partisan and was driven by money from out-of-state interest groups who were quite happy to make up lies to win Supreme Court elections. After my unsuccessful race for the Supreme Court last year, there were those who predicted that it would be very difficult for me to be re-elected to my current position on the Court of Appeals this year because this corrupting process would now doom my re-election efforts. But the voters proved them wrong! I am more grateful than I can express to the voters and the thousands of supporters who literally span the political spectrum and who engaged to help us win this election.
Every democracy requires the rule of law and fair, impartial, independent, and competent courts.
Democracy is under attack in our great state and country. Now is not the time for any of us to withdraw. Rest assured that I will do my very best to honor the support and votes of everyone to helped me earn another term on the Court of Appeals by continuing our efforts to preserve and strengthen the courts as the last line of defense for our liberties and our democracy.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart,
Lisa
