Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election received far less attention than a similar contest a year ago, when Elon Musk spent $25 million trying to flip the balance of power on the court. Back then, the world’s richest man—who, at the time, was also a key White House adviser—personally hand-delivered $1 million checks to voters while wearing a cheesehead hat.

This time, majority control of the state’s highest court wasn’t at stake. But the outcome was still hugely significant for politics in Wisconsin and nationally.

The massive 20-point victory by Chris Taylor, a former Democratic state legislator and appellate judge in Madison, expands the progressive majority on the court from 4-to-3 to 5-to-2. That extends a remarkable winning streak for Democratic-backed judicial candidates, who’ve now won five of the last six Supreme Court races in the swing state. It’s a stunning turnaround from a decade ago, when a conservative majority dominated the court and upheld much of then-Gov. Scott Walker’s ® right-wing agenda, such as his efforts to crush unions, make it harder to vote, and gerrymander in the GOP’s favor.

    • athatet@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      I remember something about the people getting paid not being winners of anything but like, handpicked recipients? So because it was all actually a lie it wasn’t actually illegal in the sense that he was paying voters off. Or something similar to that. No one with money got in trouble for it.

  • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
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    2 days ago

    The margin was fantastic, but the turnout sucked. Wisconsin’s population is about 6 million, only 1.5 million voted.

    Spring elections always suck for turnout, but with everything going on, I honestly expected better. Hopefully we can get it together for the other stuff this year.