Union rights fight looms in very close supreme court race
A Wisconsin Supreme Court election that offered the public its first formal opportunity to weigh in on the national fight over union rights was very close in the early going Tuesday.
Initial returns showed incumbent Justice David Prosser locked in in a virtual dead heat with challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg in a race that Democrats have tried to turn into a referendum on Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s contentious new union rights law.
Kloppenburg’s campaign has surged in recent days as her supporters worked to focus anger over the new union law onto the conservative-leaning Prosser. They hope a Kloppenburg victory will tilt the Supreme Court to the left and set the stage for the court to strike down the law.
The law strips most public workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights. Walker has said the move is needed to help balance the state’s budget. Democrats say it’s designed to cripple unions, which are among their strongest campaign supporters. Election officials in the Democratic strongholds of Madison and Milwaukee have noted remarkably high voter interest in the race.