Pat Roggensack wins another 10-year term on High Court



MADISON (WITI) -- Voters on Tuesday, April 2nd decided a statewide race for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice. Marquette University Law Professor Ed Fallone challenged incumbent Justice Pat Roggensack for a seat on the seven-member court. Roggensack came out with the victory on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court race is technically a non-partisan race, but for all practical purposes, justices fall into liberal and conservative blocks.

Though this race didn't have the fanfare of the hotly-contested Prosser-Kloppenburg race which ended in a recount and a Prosser victory, there were high stakes in this election. Key parts of Gov. Scott Walker's agenda could be determined by the direction of the court -- controversial issues like Act 10, mining and voter ID could come before the court soon.

Roggensack was originally elected in 2003. She is 72 years old. With the win, she now gets another 10-year term.



Fallone framed the campaign, saying the central issue is dysfunction on the court in the wake of the physical altercation between Justice David Prosser and Justice Ann Walsh Bradley.

Justice Pat Roggensack spoke about her campaign for re-election during an appearance at the Milwaukee Press Club. FOX6's Mike Lowe was on the panel of journalists questioning Roggensack.

Roggensack was running for her second 10-year term, but the race did not center on her record. Roggensack said she wanted to make it clear she was the one up for re-election -- not Justice David Prosser or anyone else on the court.

"The Supreme Court has suffered just a grevious injury as an institution, just awful -- but the court is not up for re-election," Roggensack said.

Roggensack said the physical scuffle between Prosser and Justice Ann Walsh Bradley has damaged the court's credibility.

Roggensack detailed the incident at the Milwaukee Press Club.

"Justice Bradley was in one room.  Justice Prosser was in another room. Justice Prosser was not yelling or using bad language. He said something to the Chief Justice like, 'I've totally lost faith in your leadership.'  He was annoyed, but there wasn't yelling or screaming or bad language.  With that, Justice Bradley got out of her chair, came running out of one room, running into another room, with her fist in the air.  She said she was pointing to the door.  It didn't look like that to me, but that's fine.  And she got right in his face, I mean she ran right into his face.  He didn't take one step toward her.  Not one.  He should have turned around and ran. I bet he wished he turned around and ran.  He has no right to touch her, regardless of what she did.  However I believe they're both out of line," Roggensack said.

All but one justice witnessed the altercation.

"If people wanted to pick anybody in the world to witness a crime, you would say the Supreme Court justices would be the perfect people to give an impartial rendition of what happened. If you can't get nine nuns or something like that to do it -- how do you explain the differences between the liberal block and the conservative block and how they saw this incident?" Roggensack said.

The incident hangs over the court like a dark cloud, and there is still no resolution in terms of discipline for either of the justices.

Roggensack said the only explanation for what happened is that both justices' nerves were "totally fried."

Roggensack said restoring credibility is a top goal, but said she wanted voters to look at her record as a justice who brings a wealth of experience to the bench.