Photo courtesy of Susan Crawford for Wisconsin
Susan Crawford
Judge Susan Crawford for Wisconsin State Supreme Court
The Shepherd Express gives its strongest endorsement of Judge Susan Crawford for the state supreme court. She’s smart, she’s tough, she’s honest and she will follow the state constitution even when it conflicts with her personal opinions. That is what we want in a state supreme court justice.
Judge Crawford has been a very successful prosecutor for almost a decade and a highly respected circuit court judge for seven years. Her focus throughout her career has been to keep our citizens safe in their communities and in their homes. She is also focused on protecting our democracy by her strict interpretations of our state constitution and the rule of law. Her opponent cannot honestly say that.
Wisconsin had gone through a tough 13-year history with extremist lawmakers in their gerrymandered districts controlling both chambers of our legislature and the questionable supreme court majority that continually tried to push Wisconsin back decades. Two years ago, that changed when the state supreme court finally got a majority that respects our state constitution. Ruling that our state legislative districts were unconstitutional, as most legal scholars pointed out for years, Wisconsin finally got fair district maps. Fair districts in a state that votes close to 50/50 means that legislators now must try to fairly represent all their constituents, not just one party. That is how honest government works.
This election is important because the candidates are so different and there are several important issues that affect our daily lives. Each candidate’s legal history will indicate how they might rule.
Abortion: The question is whether Wisconsin is going to live under an 1849 law that bans abortion without exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother. Crawford supports a woman’s right to control her body. Her opponent, Brad Schimel supports extreme anti-abortion positions.
Keeping Wisconsinites Safe and Sentencing the Bad Actors: Contrary to the false ads from the Schimel campaign, Crawford has dealt with some of the most serious and violent criminals in her courtroom and sent these violent criminals to prison. Schimel talks the “tough on criminals” talk, but he strongly supported pardoning the violent criminals who were convicted by juries of their peers for attacking over 140 police officers, who were just doing their jobs, at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
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Perhaps one of the most serious actions—or lack of action—was the fact that when Schimel was Wisconsin Attorney General for one term, he let over 6,000 sexual assault kits sit untested for over two years depriving women, who had been raped, from having a chance for their day in court and for seeing their perpetrators sent to prison. Not surprisingly, Schimel was defeated as attorney general in his first attempt at re-election.
Some have raised questions regarding an apparent relationship between Schimel’s administration of justice and campaign contributions. When he was attorney general, he refused to join the opioid lawsuit against Purdue Pharma by a bipartisan group of 15 attorneys general. By the way, he was the only Wisconsin elected official to accept campaign money from Purdue Pharma. Also, as district attorney, Schimel gave an amazingly lenient plea deal to a man caught with thousands of images of child porn, including images of children as young as six years old, after the sex predator’s lawyer gave substantial money to Schimel’s campaign.
Fundraising: The Wisconsin code of ethics for judicial candidates clearly states that judicial candidates cannot directly solicit campaign contributions. Schimel has bragged about violating the code of ethics when he says, “I have to invest in knee pads” as he begs the millionaire and billionaires for money, even naming one of the Wisconsin billionaires.
Honesty and Decency: Beside Schimel’s campaign providing a lot of nasty misinformation about his opponent Judge Crawford, his campaign digitally altered a photo of her in one of his ads. Schimel’s campaign admitted to doing such a nasty thing. They claimed they did it themselves without the help of AI since not disclosing the use of AI distorted pictures in campaign material is now a state crime.
Democracy and Treason: Today when the news headlines discuss the possibility of a constitutional crisis where the executive branch refuses to obey the decisions of the courts, Schimel has made his position clear. Last July at a campaign meet and greet in Adams County, he was recorded saying that a “Bloody Revolution” may be needed to get “freedom” back. Schimel is too extreme for Wisconsin.
Please Vote for Susan Crawford for Wisconsin Supreme Court
Jill Underly for State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Photo Courtesy of Dr. Jill Underly
Dr. Jill Underly
The Shepherd Express strongly endorses Dr. Jill Underly for re-election as Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Jill Underly has spent her entire career in public education as a middle and high school teacher, a school principal, a school district superintendent and as the highest-level educator in Wisconsin, State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Under her leadership over the past four years, we have seen real improvements in our children's education. Our graduation rate hit an all-time high for Wisconsin at 90.5% which puts us among the top three states with the highest graduation rates in the country.
Dr. Underly understands that many of our students have serious mental health issues, some leading to suicide and suicide attempts. Good mental health is vital to success in school and in life following school. She worked to get Federal grants to provide a number of mental health services in our schools including suicide prevention efforts.
Underly understands that there are various routes to a productive job and a productive life that do not require a four-year college degree. She has been a champion for skilled trades and for understanding the constant changes in our skilled trades as technology continues to make the jobs more complex requiring more sophisticated training.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction is a non-partisan position and ]Underly has worked successfully with legislators from both parties to pass bi-partisan legislation to improve the reading skills of our children.
Underly has shown that she has been highly successful as state superintendent and deserves another four years of helping prepare our children for the future.
Please Vote for Jill Underly for State Superintendent of Public Instruction on April 1.
