The two candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Judge Chris Taylor and Judge Maria Lazar, finally met in a debate on Thursday, only five days before the election. The debate was originally scheduled for two weeks ago, but had to be postponed when Taylor ended up in the emergency room for kidney stones.
Taylor dominated the majority of the debate, staying focused and answering the questions directly, honestly, and without hesitation. Lazar spent most of her time avoiding answering questions, making snide comments, and launching ad hominem attacks. The most fiery part of the debate was when the issue of abortion was brought up.
Taylor stated that she supported the SCOWIS decision to strike down an abortion ban that was written in the 1870s, and her support for a woman to be able to make her own health care decision. Lazar denied that she said that she had stated she would have supported the ban despite the fact that there is a video of it.
Taylor scored the win with this comment:
TAYLOR: It is tragic that we have someone running for the state Supreme Court that is celebrating that there are women all over this country who are victims of rape and incest who no longer...
LAZAR: I'm going to say that's tragic. I've never said that ever.
TAYLOR: Let me finish. That is what the reality of overturning Roe versus Wade that you have called very wise. It's not been very wise for victims of rape and incest who now live in states where abortion has been outlawed. It's not very wise for women who've lost their lives in states because they couldn't get help when a pregnancy went wrong.
Lazar is trying to appease her anti-abortion campaign donors while trying to avoid accepting the responsibility for the consequences of her choices. That doesn't seem to be a very judicial attitude, does it?
