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Gableman, Butler discuss philosophies, experience in race

In their final meeting before Tuesday’s election, candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court traded blows Friday over ads widely considered the nastiest in the state’s history, which have drawn national attention to the race.

Burnett County Circuit Court Judge Michael Gableman is challenging incumbent Justice Louis Butler in the race for a 10-year spot on the state’s highest court.

While Butler at one point called Gableman’s widely criticized attack ad “disgusting,” Gableman said Butler had said opponents’ backgrounds are fair game in judicial races, and that his own ad served its purpose in highlighting differences in the candidates’ backgrounds.

“I come from a longstanding prosecuting background in a former career; I am a judicial conservative,” Gableman said. “My opponent has been legislating from the bench and has been expanding the rights of criminals and criminal defendants and tying the hands of law enforcement.”

The candidates repeatedly clashed over judicial philosophy during the one-hour debate broadcast live on Wisconsin Public Television from the University of Wisconsin’s Vilas Hall.

Gableman called himself the judicial conservative in the race, a “law-and-order” kind of judge.

“The fact is, you have been a judicial activist,” Gableman said. “You’ve been consistently expanding the rights of criminals based on a personal or social view.”

After one of the many instances in the debate when Gableman called Butler a judicial activist, Butler responded, saying, “That’s not my philosophy and you know it, and those are ridiculous charges.”

During the debate, the candidates also countered recent suggestions of scrapping the judicial election system altogether in favor of appointing new justices.

Butler said he has not advocated moving to the appointment system.

“There is something to be said about voters choosing who will make the difficult decisions about their futures,” Butler said after the debate. “But I think everyone has to acknowledge, based on the last two campaigns, that our system is currently broken.”

Gableman, when asked during the debate, said he has been proud to take his message around the state and that his message is “resonating with voters.”

Should he win, Gableman would be the first challenger to defeat an incumbent in the Supreme Court race since 1967. Butler would be the first black person elected to the high court in Wisconsin history, as Gov. Jim Doyle appointed him to fill a vacancy when he first took the bench.

The outcome of this state Supreme Court race could shift the balance of philosophies on the court to a 4-3 conservative persuasion from the current 4-3 majority leaning liberal.