Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Maria Lazar joined a group of less than 15 students at an event hosted by College Republicans of UW-Madison ahead of the April 7 election to discuss the importance of integrity on the bench Monday evening.
Before joining this election, Lazar said she has worked as a Wisconsin Court of Appeals judge for four years and was a Circuit Court judge for seven years before that.
“Last year’s race, it was awful. A devastating race for the integrity, the face of the judiciary,” Lazar said. “I looked at this race and I said, I think I could do better, which is sort of my theme for everything I’ve done. So in my campaign now, I am running as the judge, not a politician.”
Wisconsin Supreme Court elections have seen mounting political influence in past years, with last year’s supreme court election becoming the most expensive judicial race in the nation’s history, according to Brennan Center for Justice.
Despite officially being nonpartisan candidates, Lazar aligned with the Republican Party of Wisconsin while her opponent and fellow Court of Appeals judge Chris Taylor aligned with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, according to PBS.
“If you have judges who act like legislators and say what the law is, you are going down a path toward tyranny,” Lazar said. “I’ve been forthright and honest, and I am telling you the absolute total truth. Where is my opponent?”
Taylor has been working as a judge for the last six years, splitting time between the Dane County Circuit Court and her current position, according to her website.
Prior to her judgeship, Taylor worked as the policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin before becoming Democratic state representative for the city of Madison from 2011 until she joined the court of appeals in 2020, according to her website.
“It doesn’t really matter if [Taylor] was a Democrat or Republican or Independent. She was a party member, and she’s running a campaign to be a legislator on the bench, and that’s what our court doesn’t need,” Lazar said.
One of the Lazar campaign’s advertisements pointed to Taylor’s background at Planned Parenthood and a bill she proposed while serving in the state assembly to remove Wisconsin’s 20-week abortion term limit as evidence that she is an activist, extremist judge.
Lazar stands firm in her decision to uphold the 20-week compromise — unless Wisconsinites tell their legislators they would like that to change, she said.
“I’m not an anti-abortion candidate. I recognize this issue is so difficult,” Lazar said. “I found out one of my close dear friends had an abortion during high school, and I never knew … There’s no way I would have told her not to do it. The only thing I would have done is held her hand.”
Lazar said she is feeling extraordinarily confident in her current standing in the race, despite Taylor’ campaign having raised $3 million more than Lazar in funds.
Lazar said she has not sought out-of-state endorsements or funding. According to numbers listed by The Badger Project, Lazar has received $50,000 in out-of-state donations to her campaign, or around 12% of the less than $400,000 in total donations.
“I think my opponent has about a third of their money coming from out-of-state, if not more. I told people what I’m going to do better is my ads, my campaign. My theme is honest,” Lazar said. “My opponent has people on her behalf who are doing [ads] with sly insinuations.”
Taylor has received just under $355,000 in out-of-state donations, which is around 10% of nearly $3.5 million in total donations, according to numbers listed by The Badger Project.
Though Taylor’s campaign donations are outpacing hers, Lazar said it boosts her optimism for her success.
“There’s 66% of the people in Wisconsin who don’t know which way they want to go and if they don’t like her after a million dollars, I feel very confident that I’m right on her heels, that I’m going to prevail in this race,” Lazar said.
