MADISON, Wis. — The stakes could not be higher for a state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin. The winner will determine control of the court's ideology.
Voters see it and so do two key political players trying to navigate a win for their team.
Milwaukee voter Barbara Leigh is concerned about the partisan tone in the nonpartisan race.
"It's just ridiculous how partisan everything has become, it's very, very upsetting," said Leigh.
The outcome of the race will determine which way the court leans. Former Justice Dan Kelly is the conservative candidate and Judge Janet Protasiewicz is the liberal candidate.
Ben Wikler is the Democratic Party Chair of Wisconsin. The April 4 election has been circled on his calendar for more than a year.
"I'll tell you the number one thing is reproductive freedom," said Wikler.
Brian Schimming is the longtime Republican strategist and newly elected chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
"They want to upend the legislative prerogative," said Schimming
Wikler looks at the state Supreme Court race as a chance to correct what he sees as an unfair landscape - like redistricting maps drawn by Republicans - to deal with political issues in the legislature.
"To become a democracy in this state where the public will turn into who is elected to public office - where the will of the people shall be the law of the land as it says in the Capitol, we have to rebalance the Supreme Court," Wikler said.
Republicans have held on to control of the state legislature and state Supreme Court for more than a decade.
Schimming believes some of the political issues playing out in the election are for the legislature, not the court.
"If they want to keep making excuses for losing elections by saying we have to run to the courts to upend the people's will at the legislature, that's a sad commentary on the Democrats," said Schimming.
For some early voters like Deborah Vishny, no matter how you look at it, the state Supreme Court race feels hyper-partisan.
"It doesn't surprise me because people are voting for political reasons," said Vishny.
Statewide more than 370,000 absentee ballots have been cast as of Wednesday morning, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
A closer look at some of the counts by county shows Dane and Milwaukee lead the state with more than 59,000 each. Waukesha has more than 47,000 early votes. Brown County is at 16,300, while Outagamie County has more than 11,000 and Winnebago County has 9,400.
