Shirley Abrahamson wanted an answer, but then-Gov. Patrick Lucey wasn’t ready to give it.
Was he, or was he not, going to endorse her 1979 bid for the Wisconsin Supreme Court?
Just three years earlier, Lucey, a Democrat, had appointed Abrahamson to fill a vacancy on the court, and he intended to endorse her. But Lucey, in an interview this month, said it wasn’t his style to quickly answer such pointed political questions.
The lack of response didn’t sit well with Abrahamson, who wasn’t used to getting the runaround. In addition to her three years on the court, she had more than a dozen years’ experience as an attorney and UW Law School professor.