
Bruce Murphy: Republicans hit bottom in Supreme Court race
Quiet campaign didn’t work. Party is in deep trouble.
Visit WisPolitics-State Affairs for premium content,
keyword notifications, bill tracking and more
Submit columns for consideration to wisopinion@wispolitics.com

Quiet campaign didn’t work. Party is in deep trouble.

Taylor’s lopsided victory does not mean that Wisconsin has turned, overnight, from a 50-50 purple state that narrowly elected both Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump into a liberal stronghold where Democrats can expect to run the table in November.

What makes this result especially interesting is that Halvensleben is a Democrat.

We need election officials who actually care about getting this right, and we need candidates who understand and respect the law enough to follow it.

Taxpayers are right to be angry that our property taxes are so high, and they should be especially angry about the misallocation of their school tax dollars. High property taxes and low return-on-investment are a choice, and school districts have chosen poorly.

The immediate controversy over UW president’s firing centers on secrecy. However, the more significant governance issue started long before. It began with a presidential employment agreement.

Whatever the case and for whatever reasons, Churchill’s sense of moral and strategic clarity is harder to find today in our leaders’ wartime rhetoric. Instead there is fragmented and often contradictory messaging.

In the 2026 race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, Chris Taylor was always seen as the clear favorite to win, but even the most optimistic prognostication from liberal supporters didn’t quite see this — a 20-point landslide blowout victory.

On paper, Lazar was a good enough candidate to win. Lazar lost because she was wildly outspent.

Chris Taylor’s election would have been bad enough for one day, but then yesterday evening the UW Board of Regents went ahead and fired System President Jay Rothman. They did it in closed session and provided no explanation.

The firing squad met and executed their plan with cold precision. They refused to hear a single word from the condemned. They did not even bother to read his charges to the public before striking the blow that ended his tenure. This was a bureaucratic ambush, pure and simple.

Evers’ vetoes are an indication of where Wisconsin Democrats now are: to the left of even Gavin Newsom of California.

When the state dictates what a therapist can say, counseling becomes compliance. When it strips the legislature of oversight, it does the same to democracy itself.

Artificial intelligence is coming fast, and with it comes both promise and controversy.

Trump’s backlash against diversity hurting Wisconsin companies.

This war is being fought without a clear or credible justification, and messaging from the Trump administration has offered continually revised and contradictory goals and timelines.

Here in Madison this tax season, some members of Madison for a World BEYOND War are practicing war tax resistance.

Statistics continue to show that immigrants are, in actuality, two to four times more law-abiding as a group than native-born U.S. citizens.

The four astronauts aboard Orion are giving us a profound sense of our own smallness, a reminder that we are a mere speck in the universe. They are showing us what’s possible when people work as one.

Polls show big splits between Wisconsin Democrats, Republicans and independents.

Quiet campaign didn’t work. Party is in deep trouble.

Taylor’s lopsided victory does not mean that Wisconsin has turned, overnight, from a 50-50 purple state that narrowly elected both Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump into a liberal stronghold where Democrats can expect to run the table in November.

What makes this result especially interesting is that Halvensleben is a Democrat.

We need election officials who actually care about getting this right, and we need candidates who understand and respect the law enough to follow it.

Taxpayers are right to be angry that our property taxes are so high, and they should be especially angry about the misallocation of their school tax dollars. High property taxes and low return-on-investment are a choice, and school districts have chosen poorly.

The immediate controversy over UW president’s firing centers on secrecy. However, the more significant governance issue started long before. It began with a presidential employment agreement.

Whatever the case and for whatever reasons, Churchill’s sense of moral and strategic clarity is harder to find today in our leaders’ wartime rhetoric. Instead there is fragmented and often contradictory messaging.

In the 2026 race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, Chris Taylor was always seen as the clear favorite to win, but even the most optimistic prognostication from liberal supporters didn’t quite see this — a 20-point landslide blowout victory.

On paper, Lazar was a good enough candidate to win. Lazar lost because she was wildly outspent.

Chris Taylor’s election would have been bad enough for one day, but then yesterday evening the UW Board of Regents went ahead and fired System President Jay Rothman. They did it in closed session and provided no explanation.

The firing squad met and executed their plan with cold precision. They refused to hear a single word from the condemned. They did not even bother to read his charges to the public before striking the blow that ended his tenure. This was a bureaucratic ambush, pure and simple.

Evers’ vetoes are an indication of where Wisconsin Democrats now are: to the left of even Gavin Newsom of California.

When the state dictates what a therapist can say, counseling becomes compliance. When it strips the legislature of oversight, it does the same to democracy itself.

Artificial intelligence is coming fast, and with it comes both promise and controversy.

Trump’s backlash against diversity hurting Wisconsin companies.

This war is being fought without a clear or credible justification, and messaging from the Trump administration has offered continually revised and contradictory goals and timelines.

Here in Madison this tax season, some members of Madison for a World BEYOND War are practicing war tax resistance.

Statistics continue to show that immigrants are, in actuality, two to four times more law-abiding as a group than native-born U.S. citizens.

The four astronauts aboard Orion are giving us a profound sense of our own smallness, a reminder that we are a mere speck in the universe. They are showing us what’s possible when people work as one.

Polls show big splits between Wisconsin Democrats, Republicans and independents.