From last week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race:
As the first news outlets began calling the Wisconsin Supreme Court election for the liberal candidate Susan Crawford, her opponent called her — to concede.
Minutes later Tuesday night, the conservative-backed Brad Schimel took the stage at his watch party to acknowledge the loss. Angry yells broke out. One woman began to chant about his opponent: “Cheater.”
Schimel didn’t hesitate. “No,” he responded. “You’ve got to accept the results.” Later, he returned to the stage with his classic rock cover band to jam on his bass. [AP]
Schimel is a classy dude when it comes to the basics of democracy. While the Wisconsin Republican Party has conducted itself extremely poorly over the last decade or so, there are still Republicans who know how this is supposed to go.
One of those Republicans who’ve been less than gracious was Michael Gableman, a lawyer and former judge and occasional subject of this blog. He seems to received a dose of comeuppance:
Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who led a widely derided review of the 2020 presidential election, searching for evidence for baseless accusations of fraud, will have his law license suspended for three years, according to a stipulated agreement between him and the state Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR).
Law Forward, the progressive voting rights focused firm, filed a grievance against Gableman with the OLR in 2023. The OLR filed a complaint against Gableman in November that alleged, among other counts, that he had failed to “provide competent representation” and to “abstain from all offensive personality” and of violating attorney-client privilege. [Wisconsin Examiner]
Perhaps the officials of the Wisconsin Republican Party will pay attention to this object lesson and stop acting like idiots.
