The acrimony continues to rise in the days leading up to the pivotal April 4 election.

The election for Supreme Court justice on April 4 is truly the most important and consequential election in Wisconsin this decade. Why? Because the outcome will affect virtually every major issue in Wisconsin.

Protasiewicz has been campaigning by sharing her “values,” telegraphing her political preferences to voters with a brazen audacity beyond anything we’ve seen in the modern history of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. And her record on the bench is equally disqualifying, displaying a consistent pattern of giving low bail and short sentences for violent criminals.

Your vote is too valuable to squander. If it weren’t, no one would be spending millions trying to buy it.

Supporting both ballot amendment questions will improve our bail system and ensure judges uniformly apply cash bail standards to protect us from dangerous criminals, thus making Wisconsin safer.

Until fair maps exist we are without a voice in our government. It is time to call for binding referendums on issues important to Wisconsinites such as voting rights, drinking water free of forever chemicals, fair voting maps, reproductive rights and sensible gun regulations if we are to have a government “of, by and for the people.”

It’s not just that campaigns disseminating misinformation and accepting tons of money from outside local communities is becoming the norm. It’s that all that is happening at the same time that local news is drying up, leaving a void to be filled by shady characters with dangerous ideas.

The real-estate PAC should have spent its money on the one open race for school board rather than Madison city council races.

Taxpayers should insist on seeing hard choices and specific plans.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Putin and other Kremlin officials for war crimes. He will never personally face a trial outside Russia, but the Republicans could call for a trial in absentia to make a clear point about how not to conduct a nation’s affairs.

It is regrettable that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has had to serve as the last bastion of defense against government overreach, but that has increasingly been its role as government officials progressively don the mantle of a ruling class.

Environmental protections in Wisconsin have increasingly come under attack at all levels of government. It will be up to the courts, including the Wisconsin Supreme Court, to uphold the laws as they were designed and intended.

Health care professionals should have the freedom to provide the best medical advice and treatment to our patients without fear of being jailed. I am not going to stand by and let anyone tell me that I can’t give my patients the health care they need.

La Follette’s resignation, Godlewski appointment latest example of insider Capitol deals.

When we contemplate sitting on the side lines, we must ask ourselves, who will stand up when they come for us?