After Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley decided that she didn't want to face the voters, the Republicans looked high and low for their sacrificial lamb candidate to run against Judge Chris Taylor. Finally, they found her, Judge Maria Lazar. While Lazar is much more soft-spoken, she is still just as extreme as their other candidates have been.

The two main issues in this race are the same as the last two races - abortion and the 2020 elections - but there has been a lot less vitriol in this race. It could very well be because both candidates are women instead of a man and a woman.

Taylor has a very impressive background, having been president of Planned Parenthood - Wisconsin before becoming a state representative and then a judge. As you might have guessed from her brief bio, Taylor is very much in favor of a woman's right to decide her own health care. Likewise, she knows from experience the importance of election integrity.

Lazar, on the other hand, is backed by the anti-abortion groups and said that overturning Roe v Wade was "very wise." She is also backed by election deniers like Mike Gableman.

What I did find surprising is that Lazar is actually more extreme than Rebecca Bradley. Bradley, despite all her faults, did believe that it was important to follow the law as it was written. In a report comparing the two candidates, Taylor also showed that she followed the law as it was written. Lazar felt it was more important to go with what she felt the intent of the lawmakers was, instead of what they actually wrote.

If Taylor should win on April 7th, that will give the liberals a 5-2 majority.

However, don't think things will slow down after that. There will be another election in the spring of 2027 for the bench currently occupied by extreme right winger Annette Ziegler, who already announced that she is not running again.