When Justice William Bablitch announced he would not seek a third term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, he opened up a game of musical chairs for his seat. When the music stops at voting polls tonight, only one of two candidates will have a place to sit.

The clear path of the race between Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge Pat Roggensack and Brown County Circuit Court Judge Ed Brunner has been growing increasingly muddy since the pair survived a primary election in February.

Brunner has questioned Roggensack’s refusal to agree to limit her spending and has hinted that it is a result of her reception of large donations from special interests. Roggensack said the reason she has been able to raise more money than Brunner was because she had a broader base in the community.

“Being upfront about spending ensures a candidate is not taking special-interest money. Ultimately, what we would like to have is public funding for judicial campaigns,” Brunner said. However, he said until that is implemented, it is the responsibility of candidates to disclose their expenditures.

Brunner said that although Roggensack has indicated that she is independent and moderate, she has been connected with the Republican Party.

“Judge Brunner has decided to run a negative campaign. We’re trying to run a clean campaign,” Roggensack said.

Roggensack said she decided not to agree to Brunner’s proposed spending limits because she was trying to move awareness of her campaign to all corners of Wisconsin.

“If you’re going to communicate with all the voters in the state, $215,000 is not going to get the job done. Agreeing to spending limits would be like saying these voters don’t matter,” Roggensack said.

Giving examples of candidates for gubernatorial campaign spending between $10 million and $12 million and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., spending as much as a $1 million in her campaign to retain the state’s 2nd Congressional District, Roggensack said Brunner’s proposed limits were not enough to run an effective statewide campaign.

Brunner said his 15 years of experience as a trial lawyer make him qualified because that position requires all the decision-making skills of the Supreme Court with the additional judicial tasks of issuing sentencing and evaluating the credibility of testimony.

Brunner said judges across the state, including Justice Bablitch, have recognized he is a qualified candidate by endorsing him.

Roggensack feels she offers unique experience to the Supreme Court because she would be the first justice who had worked on Wisconsin’s Appeals Court. By streamlining the judicial process and coordinating the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, Roggensack said the cost of bringing an appeal before the courts would decrease greatly.

“I’ve talked to three current justices, and each one of them said, ‘That’s a really interesting idea — I wonder why we’ve never thought of that,'” Roggensack said.

Roggensack said students should be interested in appellate court races because those who are elected to such courts will eventually get to decide the laws that affect individual rights, and that an ideal Supreme Court candidate should have good scholarship and knowledge of the law.

Brunner said students should take interest in judicial elections because the judges appointed will ultimately make decisions on laws affecting their civil liberties, which will become more important as the federal government tries to combat terrorism.

“The Supreme Court can decide cases involving governmental intrusion into our private lives and free-speech rights,” Brunner said.