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>> The morning before, the
only statewide debate

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between candidates for
Wisconsin Supreme Court

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this week, one of them had
to pull out. Liberal

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candidate Chris Taylor went
to the hospital for kidney

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stones, according to her
campaign. Conservative

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Maria Lazar wished her a
speedy recovery. Now the

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debate has been rescheduled
for next Thursday night,

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which puts it just five
days before the April 7th

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spring election. Meanwhile,
the latest Marquette Law

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School poll found voters
still don't know who

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they'll vote for. Among
registered voters, 53%

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remain undecided, with 23%
supporting Chris Taylor and

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17% choosing Maria Lazar
and 7% saying they won't

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vote. The state Supreme
Court election is the focus

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of this week's new Inside
Wisconsin Politics, with

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Wisconsin Public Radio
reporter Shawn Johnson and

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Rich Kremer and PBS
Wisconsin “Here& Now”

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reporter Zac Schultz.
>> The Wisconsin Supreme

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Court race is coming up,
and polling shows a

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majority of you say you
don't know enough about the

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candidates. Let's fix that.
This is inside Wisconsin

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politics.
I'm Shawn Johnson here with

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my colleagues, Zac Schultz
and Rich Kremer. Hey, guys.

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>> Hello. Hey.
>> So this is not something

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we're just making up here.
There has been polling on

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this race, and the leading
vote getter in that poll

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was a majority of people
saying they don't know who

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they're going to support.
That is so different than

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in 2023 and 2025, when we
in Wisconsin were the Super

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Bowls of election for our
Supreme Court races. So,

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Zac, what is the difference
this year?

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>> Well, the simple
difference is this isn't

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for the majority. The
Liberals will have a four

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person majority for the
next session no matter what.

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If Chris Taylor wins, it
goes to five two. If Chris.

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If Maria Lazar wins, it
stays at 4 to 3. But that

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simply is the difference
between $100 million in

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campaign and the attention
of the world on this very

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important swing state, and
the court's decisions on

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election laws versus a
snooze fest, even in the

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state for people that
normally tune in for these

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elections, are still trying
to figure out, oh, when is

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that coming up?
>> And that's not hyperbole

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either. That $100 million
is a real number from last

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election, when we shattered
the 2023 record not just

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for Wisconsin, but for
national judicial races.

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Rich. The 2025 race was the
first one you'd covered

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really closely. What was a
day in the life like on

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that one, and how does it
compare to what you've

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observed in this Supreme
Court race?

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>> I mean, it's like night
and day. I covered a

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Republican, former
Republican Attorney General

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Brad Schimel, spent a day
with him on the campaign

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trail. And, you know, first
off, the bat, he took money

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directly from the
Republican Party of

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Wisconsin. Also, I was at a
campaign event at the

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Republican Party in La
Crosse, where Brad Schimel

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framed the race as a fight
between good and evil. And

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he also used an analogy of
driving the serpent out of

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the Garden of Eden. So the.
The language used by

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Schimel is very different
than what we've seen from

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Judge Lazar. She's
promoting that she is the

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independent candidate
compared to Chris Taylor,

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who she attacks as being an
activist and former

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Democratic lawmaker. But
she just hasn't made the

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same kind of statements
that I've heard that

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Schimel did last year.
>> It's almost like an old

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fashioned Supreme Court
race in Wisconsin, Zac.

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>> It harkens back to a day
where things weren't as

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heated that your your TV
wasn't filled with ads

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nonstop in the lead up to
it, where you really did

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have to pay attention to
learn who these people were.

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Now it's still Republican
Democrat, you know, they

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may use the labels
conservative, liberal, but

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Chris Taylor is a former
legislative Democrat but

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now independent judge. But
her connections to the

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Wisconsin Democratic Party
to the Republican Party

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covered go deep. I've
attended multiple events

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with her. She's been
speaking at GOP rallies

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with the next speaker's
Eric Toney running for

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attorney general. So it's
not like either of these

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are running down
independent lanes. They're

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still following that
traditional the new path.

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If you want to become on
the Supreme Court, you keep

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the political parties at
arm's length in your name,

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but you take all the money
under the table. You take

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all their effort for
grassroots, because that

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really matters when when it
comes to getting people out

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to vote, those turnout
operations, those dollar

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operations still belong to
the parties. There is no

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independent structure for
anyone to remain

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independent and actually
win a campaign.

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>> Zac, what should people
know about Chris Taylor's

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background and what led her
to this point?

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>> She's got heavy partizan
activity in her background

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and she doesn't deny that.
But like every judge or

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justice, she wouldn't be
former Justice Prosser

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served as the Assembly
speaker for Republicans.

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And back in the day when
they could say, well, I'm a

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conservative justice, not a
conservative politician

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with Chris Taylor in this
modern environment, I don't

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know if it really matters
because the candidates are

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so tied to the parties
anyway that her background

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doesn't seem to have any
baggage. And we saw with

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Brad Schimel Rich, as you
were talking about last

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year, he's a former
Republican attorney general

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for Wisconsin, and he did
not shy away from those

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Republican connections. But
you see a difference with

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Lazar and how she's handled
herself.

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>> Yes, she's she's leaning
on her, you know, her

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experience in the courtroom,
but also, you know, her

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political ads kind of let
you know where she stands

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on certain things, or at
least where her campaign

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does. So there's plenty of
signals out there.

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>> You know, some of these
candidates, when they run

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for Supreme Court, they
come from the law. And

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maybe you're hearing about
them for the first time or

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getting introduced to them
for the first time. But,

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you know, Chris Taylor and
Maria Lazar, as you both

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mentioned, have been around
for a little while. I

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remember Maria Lazar
defending Republican drawn

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legislative maps in 2012
alongside co-counsel Dan

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Kelly, who former Supreme
Court justice and who ran

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in a couple races in lost.
I remember Chris Taylor

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very well for her role in
the minority on the

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Legislature's Budget
Committee, where if you

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have that position, you are
expected to be able to talk

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and defend every position
and and attack the

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majority's position
aggressively. And so she

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did that. Well, she wasn't
just a backbencher

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legislator. She was the
person who was on that

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front line of attack. And,
you know, since we've since

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she's become a judge,
that's changed. And she has

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indicated and her friends
have indicated, look, she

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knows this is a different
role on the court, but it

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is striking a very big
change for her to go from

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that, you know, attack,
attack, attack Democratic

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legislator to a judge going
to see things differently.

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Rich, there was another
finding in the Marquette

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poll that we recently
covered that, you know,

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it's hard to say where
people stand on the

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candidates when more than
half of voters say they

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don't know. But what we did
see, what you saw. There's

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a lot of tells in there
about which side is more

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enthusiastic right now at
this moment in time.

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>> Yeah. Big time. There
was a big disparity in

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terms of who's excited to
vote in the April 7th

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election. So some numbers
I'll run off here. People

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saying that there are
certain to vote on April

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7th. Democrats are up 18
points over Republicans.

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How important the election
is to the outcome or how

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important is the election
outcome to you? That was a

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19 point spread in
Democrats favor as well. So

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there's all kinds of
metrics. And not to mention

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that President Trump had
his lowest net negative

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approval rating in
Marquette poll history. So