OPINION:
Judge Susan Crawford could have given a convicted child molester more than 100 years in prison. Instead, she gave him a four-year sentence.
Kevin D. Welton was convicted of sexually assaulting 6- and 7-year-old girls in a swimming pool in Middleton, Wisconsin. In January 2020, Judge Crawford ignored requests from the families of the victims and even prosecutors in liberal Dane County. Now, the sex offender is free and lives near a school.
In a rational world, Judge Crawford would face a tough reelection battle. Instead, she is running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
One might wonder how a candidate with such a weak-on-crime record could stand a chance in the ultimate battleground of Wisconsin. It boils down to one word: money.
According to documents released this week, the Crawford campaign is outraising former Attorney General Brad Schimel’s campaign in the race to determine who holds the majority on the Wisconsin high court. The Crawford campaign announced that it had collected $7.7 million.
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is the largest donor to liberal Judge Crawford’s efforts. The party can accept unlimited donations and then transfer them to her campaign. Last month, George Soros gave $1 million to the state party.
Soon afterward, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other liberal out-of-state donors added nearly $2 million to the state party coffers, which they promptly transferred to the Crawford campaign. Expect millions more in the coming weeks.
So why do so many ultraliberal billionaires and millionaires from across the country care about a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court? Adding a fourth liberal activist to the seven-member body would open the door to a massive political shift in Wisconsin.
Supporters of Judge Crawford are betting that her election will help them regain the majority for Democrats in the House of Representatives in 2026 or sooner. A screenshot of an invitation to a fundraising event that Judge Crawford recently spoke at said, “But winning this race could also result in Democrats being able to win two additional U.S. House seats, half the seats needed to win control of the House in 2026.”
In addition, Judge Crawford is against the photo identification to vote law I signed as governor. When running for judge in the ultraliberal Dane County, she wrote of her credentials in a local paper: “For over 23 years as a lawyer, I’ve worked hard to advance justice and defended the rights of Wisconsin citizens in court. I fought against Act 10. The draconian voter ID law.” Plus she was an attorney for those who opposed the commonsense measure.
That is the reason liberals across the nation are pouring money into her campaign for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. They want her and the other three radical activists on the bench to throw out our voter ID law and draw new maps that get rid of two or three seats held by Republican members of Congress.
The big government union bosses are also betting on her to help throw out Act 10. Our reforms saved Wisconsin taxpayers billions of dollars and restored power to the hardworking taxpayers and the people they elect to run their schools and local and state governments.
Recently, a Dane County judge ruled that Act 10 is unconstitutional. Although the law was upheld by the state Supreme Court and a federal court, they are betting that putting Judge Crawford on the high court will rig things their way.
On top of all that, Judge Crawford was an attorney for those who approve of late-term abortion. She supported Gov. Jim Doyle’s plans to provide in-state tuition to illegal aliens. She was behind his plan to end real-time tracking and GPS monitoring of sex offenders.
While working for Mr. Doyle, Judge Crawford was on board for his plan to release convicted felons early and eliminate probation for “minor crimes.” Many of these convicted criminals went on to commit further crimes against society.
Judge Crawford declared that “judges must fully consider alternatives to incarceration” and that criminals should be allowed to “avoid the lifelong consequences of a conviction.” She once said, “I support bail reforms to make sure low-income people aren’t held in jail” and supports no cash bail because it helps criminals “avoid a conviction.”
The other candidate in the race, Mr. Schimel, spent a career as a hard-nosed prosecutor and eventually became the Waukesha County district attorney. In 2014, the voters of Wisconsin elected him to serve as the attorney general. Since 2019, he has been a judge who upholds the Constitution and the rule of law.
The April 1 election is important for those of us in Wisconsin, but it is also vitally important to the rest of the nation.
• Scott Walker is president of Young America’s Foundation and served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin.
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