MADISON, Wis. (Wheeler News Service) — State appeals judge JoAnne Kloppenburg — who was almost elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2011 — says she’ll try again next year.
Kloppenburg issued a statement today announcing she’ll run for the seat now held by swing justice Patrick Crooks. The 77-year-old Crooks has said he would not run for another 10-year term next spring, but he later told a reporter he might run again — and he’ll make a decision this fall. Joe Donald of Milwaukee is also considering a Supreme Court bid for next spring.
The 61-year-old Kloppenburg said special interests and partisan politics don’t belong in the court system — and she has a proven record of being “fair, thoughtful, and independent.”
Kloppenburg ran against conservative Justice David Prosser in 2011. It was a quiet campaign until the massive protests erupted of Governor Scott Walker’s Act-10 public union bargaining limits. Many protesters then got behind Kloppenburg, and she ended up losing by seven-thousand votes out of one-and-a-half million that were cast. Prosser prevailed in a recount — the first for a statewide office in 22 years.
The following year, Kloppenburg was elected to the Fourth District Appellate Court.
