MADISON, Wis. (WRN) — UW Madison political scientist Barry Burden says much of the advertising in the race between Dane County Judge Susan Crawford and Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel has little to do with the actual job of a state Supreme Court Justice
“Many of the ads are about crime, records on criminal justice, toughness on crime, associations with police or law enforcement,” Burden said. “Not very indicative of the kinds of things they’ll actually address on the court. We’re providing voters with a lot of information about things that maybe aren’t most useful for them in figuring out who the right candidate would be.”
Burden says ads do help voters to understand the candidates’ allegiances to groups and causes, their judicial philosophies and how they think about cases.