Walker May Give Up Filling Dane County Judicial Vacancies

Governor Scott Walker says he may no longer appoint anyone to fill judicial vacancies in Dane County after a second of his appointees lost her election there.

On Tuesday, Walker appointee Rebecca St. John lost her campaign to retain her circuit court judicial seat in heavily Democratic Dane County to Madison attorney Rhonda Lanford. A year ago, Walker appointee Roger Allen lost his race to Judge Ellen Berz.

Asked about the contests yesterday, Walker blamed politics, and said they might be his last judicial appointments in Dane County.

“It probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to make someone who’s a good judge or a good lawyer be in a position like that. It just doesn’t make any sense to drag people through that, and so I think in the future, we may look at just allowing positions to be open until there’s an election.”

Walker said he would continue to appoint people to fill judicial vacancies in Wisconsin’s 71 other counties.

“Oh, just in Dane County, it’s the only spot out there. I mean Milwaukeee County, which has obviously got a significant Democrat majority, our appointee still won there, I think largely because people said judicial elections shouldn’t be about partisan politics. Dane County seems to be the one exception to that across the state.”

Marquette law professor and former Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske says she has never heard of a Wisconsin governor refusing to appoint judges to one county.

“I guess I understand his frustration with it, but it’s his obligation as Governor to fill vacancies. In fact, the Wisconsin Constitution provides that any time there’s a vacancy, the Governor shall fill that position.”

Geske, who was appointed to the Milwaukee County Bench by former Republican Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus and to the Supreme Court by former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson, says she thinks the people of Dane County are entitled to have a full set of judges.