Author: knutson4

“The court’s upcoming decisions on abortion, union rights and election laws have helped make this a blockbuster election,” says Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin political scientist. Another matter at stake could be the shape of the state’s congressional delegation, which is currently filled by six Republicans and two Democrats. If Crawford wins, a round of redistricting for the congressional map could follow the one already implemented for state legislative seats.

The level of intensity in the state feels about like a presidential election, said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It’s now become kind of a national referendum, or at least a way to measure the temperature of the electorate a couple of months into the Trump administration. The fact that the court is up for grabs ideologically and is weighing in on these important issues and money is so easily spread into these campaigns has really been the kind of magic stew that has put these elections on the map for everyone.”

Allison Prasch, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specialises in US political rhetoric, said this race was a strategy test for both sides.

“We know that Wisconsin, up to the very end of the presidential cycle, was very close,” she said, noting that some cities such as Milwaukee and Madison unexpectedly swung towards Trump and helped deliver him the state’s electoral college votes. “What happens in Wisconsin [now] is going to tell us a lot about what’s going to happen, not just in 2026 but in 2028.”

Emeritus Professor of Public Affairs and Applied Economics at University of Wisconsin Madison, Andrew Reschovsky, said low income students, students with disabilities and rural school districts can impact how much each student costs, when calculating state aid allocated per pupil. He added that the formula used to determine state aid amounts in Wisconsin does not take these factors into account.

“Those sort of factors are not part of our what are called general aid formula in Wisconsin. In most other states, they are integral to the main funding formula,” said Reschovsky.

“It’s really the first major election since Trump and Republicans took office in January,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center.

“It’s become kind of a referendum on the Trump administration, and what Elon Musk is doing as part of that, and Musk has amplified that by getting involved in Wisconsin,” explained Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “If there was any doubt about whether this election had a connection to national politics, Trump and Musk have made that connection for voters.”

However, the same court declined a request to redraw boundaries for the Wisconsin congressional map. Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he believes the issue is being “overblown” in this year’s race.

“I think it’s possible, but I wouldn’t say that it’s likely,” Burden said of congressional redistricting. “And it’s not the most important thing determining what happens in those midterm elections.”

In a social media post Friday morning, Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Musk appears to be crossing a line.

“Earlier payments were for registering, but this is for voting,” Burden said. “A clear violation of the state’s election bribery law.”

Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center, said he believes Schimel has made Trump the centerpiece of his campaign because Republicans have fared poorly in Wisconsin when Trump is not on the ballot.

“Schimel hitching himself to the Trump train looks like the tactic they believe is necessary to reel in less attentive voters who take note of Trump, even if it comes with the risk of blowback,” Burden said.

Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, credited the state Democratic Party for the large number of out-of-state residents donating to Crawford.

“The Democratic Party of Wisconsin established a national profile over the past five years and has attracted contributions from a network of progressive donors all over the country,” Burden said. “Touting Crawford’s campaign has definitely brought contributions her way.”

“Earlier payments were for registering but this is for voting. A clear violation of the state’s election bribery law,” Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin Madison, wrote in a post on X.

Bryna Godar, staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School, said Musk changing the terms of his offer “puts the payments and attendance at the rally back into a gray area under Wisconsin law.”

“The question is whether the offers are ‘in order to induce’ people to vote or go to the polls, and there can be arguments made on either side of that question,” she said in an email.

Robert Yablon, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted that the huge spending in the race was only possible because of the state’s loose campaign finance laws. People in Wisconsin can donate unlimited amounts to state parties, which can pass that money on to candidates. There are also very weak anti-coordination laws between independent expenditure groups and campaigns.

“You would hope that in a judicial race, you might have different candidates – maybe they have different ideologies or philosophies, different ways that they talk about the law, but it’s shared ground that they believe that the judiciary ought to operate independently from other branches, ought to check those branches,” he said.

“That ought to energize Democrats that there’s still some life left in the party, despite them being kind of at sea in Washington,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Steven Deller, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, called Canada’s billboard campaign “pretty unusual.”

“I can’t think of a single time that another government has taken a very proactive kind of marketing campaign like this,” Deller said.

“I think it’s extreme nervousness about how these tariffs will disrupt trade,” he added.

Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, credited the state Democratic Party for the large number of out-of-state residents donating to Crawford.

“The Democratic Party of Wisconsin established a national profile over the past five years and has attracted contributions from a network of progressive donors all over the country,” Burden said. “Touting Crawford’s campaign has definitely brought contributions her way.”

“We could see this kind of back-and-forth at fairly short terms — a year, two years, three years in between them — in a way that deprives the court of one of the key things that is supposed to separate law from politics, which is stability,” said Howard Schweber, professor emeritus of political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.