Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates Schimel, Crawford both campaign in La Crosse area over weekend

The ideological control of Wisconsin Supreme Court is on the spring ballot.

Both candidates, conservative Brad Schimel and liberal Susan Crawford, campaigned in La Crosse over the weekend.

Both suggest that the other would be too political and extreme for the court.

Schimel served one term as Wisconsin’s Republican attorney general. Currently, he serves as a judge in Waukesha County.

“We have to restore humility to our court, so that we have a court that respects the limits on their power, relative the other branches, and doesn’t take over those powers,” he told reporters at a Republican caucus at Onalaska on Saturday. “If we don’t restore that objectivity of the court, then our justice system is dead. It’s over.”

Crawford, a Dane County judge, met with area Democrats in La Crosse, also on Saturday, before a door-to-door canvass, and asked what state voters want.

“Do they want somebody who believes in common sense, and knows right from wrong,” said Crawford, or “do they want an extreme politician like Brad Schimel, somebody who has a career of failing to protect Wisconsinites.”

Schimel argued that Crawford and the current majority on the Supreme Court are too liberal and want to be activists.

But, he also claimed there is bipartisan support for his campaign in one area of politics.

“I have three-quarters of the elected sheriffs in Wisconsin, are publicly endorsing my campaign, and that means a whole bunch of Democrat elected sheriffs look back on the work I did as attorney general and district attorney and they know I put public safety first,” Schimel said.

Crawford would like to see more defense attorneys made available to Wisconsin residents.

“There are simply not enough lawyers in Wisconsin to represent people charged with crimes,” she said. “That is something that the Supreme Court has paid a lot of attention to. The chief justice last year created a task force or a committee to examine that, and look at ways to increase access to criminal defense attorneys.”

The spring election is expected to determine whether the state court would lean left or right, by a margin of 4-3.

Liberal justice Ann Walsh Bradley is retiring this summer, at the end of her current term.