Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn says he’ll likely seek another 10-year term on the state’s high court when his term is up in 2029.
“I’m proud of my record and proud of where I stand,” Hagedorn said on WISN 12’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “At the moment, I’m inclined to, but we’ve got three important races between now and then. So, like I’ve said, I’ve kept my promises. I’m proud of the work that I’ve done.”
Hagedorn, a member of the court’s conservative minority, has sometimes faced backlash from supporters after siding with the court’s liberal justices on several key decisions.
“I said I was going to be a judicial conservative, that I was going to be a textualist and originalist who applies the law as written, that I was going to be, understand that I have a modest role as a member of the judiciary, not inserting myself on everything, that I was going to operate without fear or favor to anyone, and I was going to be fiercely independent,” Hagedorn said. “So I’ve kept those promises.”
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Justice Susan Crawford was sworn in Friday, cementing the court’s 4-3 liberal majority as the new court prepares to hear its first round of cases in September.
“The court has been in some state of dysfunction for 30 years,” Hagedorn said. “I mean, let’s just call it straight. From the time I clerked on the court, to the time I’ve watched the court, to the time I’ve been on it, there have been clashes of personality and others that, I think, have hindered the work of the court. And so it’s incumbent upon us, the seven of us, to work together. We don’t serve the people well if our disagreements are not professional. We don’t serve the people well if we allow politics or personal views or disagreements or personal conflicts to drive our decisions.”
The most recent race in April, featuring Crawford and Brad Schimel, was the most expensive court race in the nation’s history. The most recent WisPolitics tally shows spending reached nearly $115 million, which Hagedorn predicted is the new normal for judicial races.
“The question is why do people think this is a good use of their money?” Hagedorn said. “What do they think they’re getting from this court? And the reality is, I think it is in many respects, a vote of no confidence in this court, that this court is not going to be a place that’s just going to apply the law, at least all seven of us, and people can disagree why or who because it’s both sides that are pouring money into these races. But people increasingly see this court, and courts around the country, as an extension of the political branches, and it’s incumbent upon us to prove them wrong.”
Kyle Kondik, the managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told “UpFront” they’ll be watching the candidates getting into the Wisconsin governor’s race.
The center moved its rating from “leans Democrat” to “toss up” after Gov. Tony Evers announced he won’t seek reelection.
“You look at across the country what happens at governors’ races, they’re just likelier to flip when they’re open seats,” Kondik said. “There’s also kind of an inherent added uncertainty when you remove an incumbent, and you have an open primary process where there could really be a lot of candidates on both sides.”
Kondik said potentially more than half of next year’s gubernatorial races could feature open seats.
“It’s a relatively high number when you look across the country,” Kondik said. “And again, Evers, I think that’s the 17th open seat out of 36 being contested next year. We also have two governor’s races coming up later this year: Virginia, which is always an open seat, and then New Jersey, which is an open seat because Phil Murphy, the Democratic incumbent there, is term-limited. So, you put it together, you’ve got 19 out of 38 governor’s races over the next two years as open-seat races. Incumbent governors can lose, but when you see turnover in governor’s races, it just more often comes in these open seats.”
Meanwhile, Aaron Greer, a Wisconsin filmmaker and UW Madison professor, says new film tax credits as part of the state budget are a good first step, but more will be needed to entice major movie and television productions.
“It’s close,” Greer told “UpFront.” “So, in terms of the percentage incentive, it’s like 30% which is very comparable to what’s happening in the states around us and in states all over the country. Right now, it’s capped at $5 million. So, we’re not going to have the next Marvel movie shoot entirely in Oshkosh or something, but again, it’s a start. So, I think the goal is to get us up to higher budget levels to build out the staff of the Wisconsin production office, the film office.”
The budget provision creates a state film office and up to $5 million in tax credits each year to produce movie and television shows in Wisconsin.
“In the short term, it means that some television shows, something like ‘Top Chef,’ which was in Wisconsin a few years ago, things like that,” Greer said. “And independent movies will be able to film here a little more easily, be incentivized to come here, as importantly, incentivized to stay here for Wisconsin-based filmmakers. And in the long-term, it builds resourcing capacity in the ecosystem to attract even larger projects and to have film and television production and media production writ large be a kind of major part of Wisconsin’s economy.”
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