Schimel says he bends his knee only to pray

Must do better in Dane County

(Than Dan Kelly in 2023)

Had a quick chat with Scott Walker this morning and must say he looks fit as a fiddle. Seemingly hasn’t aged a day since he left the governor’s office six years ago. This page fretted that Elon Musk would suck all the oxygen out of the state supreme court race, would play into the hands of progressives who hate billionaires (when they’re not their own billionaires, like J.B. Pritzker and George Soros). Musk gave Walker a shout-out Sunday night in Green Bay before handing out one million-dollar checks to two young people. (Ours must be in the mail.)

Progressives here in Madison WI and elsewhere picket Tesla charging stations to show their support for bloated government, which Musk and his team of experts are paring back. At least they’re not keying them, far as we know.

The liberal activist judge in Wisconsin’s supreme court race — that would be Susan Crawford — is trying to spin that Waukesha Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel bends a knee to Trump and Elon Musk. But Scott Walker makes the point that Musk’s involvement motivates the low-propensity voter that turned out for Donald Trump in what traditionally is a low-turnout spring election. Could be. In the last thrilling episode, we quoted this:

David Shor, the bracingly honest Democratic data scientist, put it well: “We’re now at a point where the more people vote, the better Republicans do.” — “Democrats are in denial about 2024”

 A little star power

Next to the President himself, is anyone more famous than Elon Musk? He is the Henry Ford/Thomas Edison/Wild Bill Hickok of our time. Someone called him the world’s richest 16 year old. Knows how to play a crowd. Who, aside from the President, is more impactful? So maybe the Schimel team knows what they’re doing, after all. (Well, it IS possible.)

“Just call me Brad” stopped at the Dane County Republican headquarters (located in a cavern deep below the city). Described his call with Donald Trump — the President called him March 21, then turned the phone over to Musk. Schimel says Trump’s only ask was that the jurist follow the law and not legislate from the bench. Said he told Trump:

“I’m going to follow the law, I’m going to restore objectivity and humility so we have a supreme court that respects the limits of its power.”

We have to say, Brian Hagedorn promised the same and was true to his word and Republicans have never forgiven him. When Justice Hagedorn upheld Wisconsin’s 2020 vote for Joe Biden in a 4 to 3 decision, too many of my fellow Republicans excoriated him. Susan Crawford, on the other hand, has all but promised to reverse Act 10. You can see why Scott Walker is riding the Schimel bus (a very impressive vehicle, btw). Two protesters stood outside; wanna bet they get TV air time?

The challenge for Dane County is to do better than poor Dan Kelly did two years ago against Janet (spell it with me) Protasiewicz. Her election flipped the court to 4 to 3 progressive. The winner took 82% of Dane County’s vote! Compounding matters, voter participation in 2023 was off the charts — 62.3% of Dane County’s eligible voters voted! (Statewide, only 39% of voters turned out statewide — and that’s with Dane County factored in!) Dane County in that race accounted for 21% of the entire statewide vote! (We crunched the numbers here.)

Blaska’s Bottom Line: It’s crazy how this race has gotten so much national attention. We speak for political junkies everywhere to say, in the words of Tommy Thompson, isn’t it great to be a Badger! This one is going to reverberate well past election day, which is tomorrow, Tuesday, April 1, if you’ve just emerged from hibernation.

What’s your prediction?