opinion
Another Big Election Looms This Spring A Guest Column by Paul Zimmerman
M
ost everyone I know in Wisconsin is glad the November general election has come and gone. If it seems like Wisconsin has been in a constant campaign mode over the past two years it is because we have been. Yet another prominent statewide election is just around the corner. Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Patience Roggensack is up for re-election in April. Justice Roggensack was first elected to a 10-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2003. The Wisconsin Supreme Court is comprised of seven justices. Many political and legal observers claim the current court is comprised of four conservative justices, two liberal justices and a swing justice that sides with conservative and liberal issues fairly equally. Justice Roggensack is considered to be a conservative justice. To put it into perspective: conservatives want Justice Roggensack re-elected to maintain the Supreme Court’s current philosophical makeup; while liberals want to defeat Justice Roggensack and elect a liberal justice in order to make the Wisconsin Supreme Court more liberal. In 2011, there was a high-profile Supreme Court race between Justice David Prosser and challenger Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg. That race rose to prominence due to the state budget repair bill which limited collective bargaining for public employees, and was viewed as a referendum on Governor Walker’s proposed state budget and collective bargaining limitations. The same situation is likely in the 2013 race.
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Rural Route
“Over the last 15 years, use value assessment of farmland, state standards for the siting of livestock operations, the Right to Farm law and stray voltage cases have all been decided by the seven individuals who serve on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”
If more than one person files to challenge Justice Roggensack, voters will narrow the field to two candidates on Tuesday, February 19 during the spring primary election. On April 2, the general spring election will be held to decide who will serve the next 10 years on the high court. Over the past two decades, the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation’s political action arm, the Volunteers for Agriculture, has made endorsements in several state Supreme Court races. The VFA will be meeting in early 2013 to decide if the organization should make an endorsement in the race, and if so, who? The Farm Bureau members who serve on the Volunteers for Agriculture committee will certainly review the voting record of the Justice Roggensack, and look at the records of her expected challengers before making this very important decision. Given Wisconsin’s election fatigue, you may wonder why this race is so important. The outcomes of more and more legislative issues are ultimately decided in court. As they say: when in doubt, litigate. Agriculture is certainly not immune to this trend. Over the last 15 years, use value assessment of farmland, state standards for the siting of livestock operations, the Right to Farm law and stray voltage cases have all been decided by the seven individuals who serve on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Paul Zimmerman is the Executive Director of Governmental Relations for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.
wisconsin farm bureau federation