Brad Schimel: I will 'restore objectivity' to Wisconsin Supreme Court

Schimel, a Waukesha County Circuit Judge, said he was “horrified” at how liberal candidate Janet Protasewiecz appeared to telegraph how she would rule on certain cases and then “started delivering on those promises” after she was elected.

“That just led me to run for this to restore objectivity,” Schimel said. “That no litigant should come to the courtroom knowing they lost their case already before they’ve filed a brief, their lawyers have argued, before anybody’s examined the law,” he told the Wisconsin State Journal.

The Republican-backed Schimel now finds himself in his own heated race for the court against another Democratic-backed candidate, Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford. Just as two years ago, the race is drawing a flood of cash from major donors around and outside Wisconsin funneled through various groups, including the state Republican and Democratic parties.

Now as then, both sides are also accusing their opponent of having prejudged cases that might come before them.

Crawford has noted that Schimel, when he was attorney general, said he would defend Act 10, former Gov. Scott Walker’s signature legislation that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers. But as the attorney representing the state, Schimel said, it was his job to defend the law.

“My opponent was the lead attorney arguing that it should be struck down,” Schimel said of Crawford’s work as a private attorney representing teachers who sued over the law. “I don’t think the public can have any confidence that with (the court’s liberal majority) in charge, this will get any fair review.”

Schimel, 60, said his role models on the court include former conservative Wisconsin Justice Jon Wilcox, a “consummate gentleman” who could disagree with people but not in a disagreeable away, and current conservative Chief Justice Annette Ziegler. for pushing to provide more and better services for those struggling with mental health and substance abuse issues.

“A judge or a justice shouldn’t have an agenda, like what they want to do with cases,” Schimel said. “But I think it’s OK to have some ideas about how the system can work better, and a desire to work on those things.”

First a prosecutor

Schimel started his law career as a Waukesha County prosecutor in 1990, the same year he graduated from UW Law School. He won election as attorney general in 2014 and was appointed to his current role in 2019 by Walker after losing re-election to current Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul.

In 2011, he was also appointed to the Wisconsin Judicial Council and the Wisconsin Crime Victim Council.

As a prosecutor, Schimel said, he has seen his share of tough cases. But the most memorable for him was one that came toward the end of his last term, an Oconomowoc murder-for-hire case involving three defendants. Two of them weren’t difficult to convict, he said. The third, “the one who had the motive, the one who supplied the money, and who was the most sinister of the three” was most difficult to pin down.

“I was with the first detectives and the medical examiner that walked in that house and saw things,” he said. “And I worked that [case] from that crime scene all the way through trial, and got the conviction.”

“That was a great culmination of a 25-year career,” he said.

An expensive race

Schimel, who’s taken in $1.7 million in direct donations from the state GOP so far, said he was determined not to make the same mistake conservative former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly made in his unsuccessful race against Protasewicz in 2023 by refusing big-dollar donations from the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

“I have no choice but to be competitive in that I have got to be able to keep my ads on the airwaves as much as my opponent,” he said.

While current law caps donations to candidates at $20,000 per donor, people can give as much as they want to state parties, and the parties can then give as much as they want to their preferred candidate. “I think our court races would be better off if the Legislature did away with that.” Schimel said.

Megadonors have also played a major role in this year’s election. Liberal investor and philanthropist George Soros has spent millions backing Crawford while Schimel has received millions in support from groups aligned with Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, prompting his opponents to characterize Schimel as “for sale.”

“I’m grateful for help that I get for that, but I’ve never talked to or met Elon Musk,” Schimel said. “I have no communications with him. I’m grateful for support I can get delivering my message, but to be clear to him or any other donor, my message is: I’m delivering objectivity to the court. There is no quid pro quo.”

Schimel accused his opponent of being the candidate who’s for sale, pointing to an online donor meeting Crawford joined last year that was billed as a “chance to put two more House seats in play for 2026,” suggesting that the court might redraw congressional maps to make them more favorable for Democrats.

“There’s a there’s an offer for pay for play in that,” he said. “That’s obscene. That shouldn’t happen. That’s reducing public trust in the courts.”

Crawford has said the topic never came up during the online call, said she hadn’t seen the email announcing it and said she has never taken a position on the maps.

Crawford and Democrats have also criticized Schimel over his decision while attorney general not to join several Wisconsin counties in suing major pharmaceutical companies to recoup costs from dealing with the opioid epidemic. Schimel said he was pursuing a surer path to victory.

“Those counties were free to sue as they wished,” he said. “I was pursuing a statewide resolution of that.”

Working with state attorneys general to resolve a limited number of cases was “a much easier path to success” than counties suing individually, he said.