Jack Kelly, Wisconsin Watch

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Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested on Friday for allegedly helping a man living in the United States without legal status evade federal immigration authorities. Dugan faces two federal felony counts — obstruction and concealing an individual.

Dugan’s case is similar to a 2019 case brought by federal prosecutors against Massachusetts Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph. In that case, Joseph was accused of helping an unauthorized immigrant avoid an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent after a court appearance.

In both cases, federal officials alleged the state judges allowed the defendants to exit their courtrooms through alternative routes to avoid federal immigration officials waiting outside the courtrooms in publicly accessible areas.

In a criminal complaint filed last week, federal officials alleged that Dugan confronted immigration enforcement officials outside of her courtroom as they waited for a defendant who was scheduled to appear before her finished his court business. Witnesses reported that Dugan “was visibly upset and had a confrontational, angry demeanor,” according to the complaint. Dugan asked to see the warrant the immigration officials were acting upon and then referred them to see the county’s chief judge.

After returning to the courtroom, Dugan then escorted the man and his attorney through a door that leads to a “nonpublic area” of the courthouse, the complaint states.

A similar series of events unfolded in the Massachusetts case. After learning that an ICE agent was waiting to arrest a defendant, Joseph eventually had the man exit the courtroom through a nonpublic exit, federal authorities alleged in a 2019 indictment. A separate court official then helped him exit the building through a back door.

The Massachusetts case was dismissed in 2022. In exchange, Joseph referred herself to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct, per The New York Times.

One key difference between the two cases: Joseph was indicted. Dugan was served a criminal complaint. To secure an indictment, prosecutors have to present evidence to a panel of everyday Wisconsin residents and convince them there is probable cause a crime has been committed. For criminal complaints, officials only have to get the sign-off of a federal judge, but then later have to secure an indictment from a grand jury, two former federal prosecutors told Wisconsin Watch.

Now, the federal government has 21 days to seek an indictment, according to Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University and a former federal prosecutor.

“It is unusual that this happened with an arrest and complaint because there really is no indication that the Judge was a flight risk or danger to the community,” she told Wisconsin Watch in an email. “They easily could have gone to the grand jury first and summoned her in IF the grand jury wanted to indict.”

Stephen Kravit, a Milwaukee area attorney and former federal prosecutor, said criminal complaints are rare in the Eastern District of Wisconsin and are usually reserved for “an exigent situation where the defendant’s whereabouts aren’t specifically known or the presence in this area is temporary.”

“None of that applies to a sitting Circuit Court Judge,” he added in an email.

Instead, Kravit said, “this was done in a hurry to make a political point.” He added, “Normally, a person charged even with felonies aged 60+ with no record and no chance of fleeing would be summoned to show up at an appointed time for booking and arraignment. Not here. And that was the point.”

🚘 Budget road trip. The Joint Finance Committee will hold a pair of hearings on Monday and Tuesday this week, stepping away from the Capitol in Madison to hear from Wisconsin residents in Hayward and Wausau about what they want included in the state’s next two-year budget.

It will be the third and fourth time so far that the committee has heard from the public on the spending plan. But as the GOP-controlled committee continues to go through the motions of crafting the budget, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, indicated last week that Republican lawmakers could punt on passing a new budget altogether.

Vos was reacting to a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that left intact a move from Gov. Tony Evers that provided for annual public school funding increases for the next 400 years. “It's certainly a possibility if we can't find a way for us to get to a common middle ground,” Vos said of spiking the funding plan last week on the “Jay Weber Show.” “But that's not the goal.”

“It's something we're talking about, but it wouldn't be the first go-to,” Vos added, noting that it has never happened before. The state has passed a budget every two years since 1931, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau.

But even if the Legislature were to pass on sending a new spending plan to Evers, things in the state wouldn’t shut down. In Wisconsin, the state continues operating at the existing spending levels until a new budget is approved.

📈 Student homelessness rising. Homelessness among K-12 Wisconsin students reached a new high in 2024, increasing 9% over the previous year despite total enrollment declining slightly.

That’s according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum, which found that a little more than 20,000 Wisconsin students were homeless in 2023-24. If that figure seems high, it’s because it is. Homelessness among students is counted using a definition that is more expansive than the one employed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The federal McKinney-Vento Act defines homeless children and youth as those “who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.”

It’s the third straight year that student homelessness increased in Wisconsin, the report found, reaching a new high since the state Department of Public Instruction started keeping data in 2019.

“The number of students affected by homelessness has grown and is likely to continue to remain high in the near future as an insufficient supply of affordable housing remains a lingering problem throughout the state,” the report concludes. “Addressing the needs of this high-risk group of students could benefit not only them but also Wisconsin’s educational outcomes overall.”

Susan Crawford’s win in Tuesday’s record-smashing Wisconsin Supreme Court election paves the way for the court’s liberal majority to continue to flex its influence over state politics.

The Dane County Circuit Court judge’s victory guarantees that liberals will control the court until at least 2028.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is at the center of state politics. It has been since 2020, when it denied Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and has continued to make headlines — especially since flipping to liberal control in August 2023.

For the past two years, Justices Rebecca Dallet, Jill Karofsky, Janet Protasiewicz and Ann Walsh Bradley — who collectively make up the court’s liberal majority — have flexed their authority and remade Wisconsin’s political landscape. Crawford, who will be sworn in on Aug. 1, will replace the retiring Walsh Bradley, who has served on the high court for 30 years.

Here’s what Crawford’s victory could mean for some key issues.

1. Abortion rights

The Wisconsin Supreme Court seems poised to, in some form or the other, strike down the state’s 1849 abortion law — which bans almost all abortions in the state.

The court’s current justices in November 2024 heard oral arguments in the lawsuit challenging the statute. It was filed by Attorney General Josh Kaul in the days after Roe vs. Wade was overturned. The lawsuit asks the court to determine whether the 1849 law applies to consensual abortions. It also asks whether the 1849 ban was “impliedly repealed” when the Legislature passed additional laws — while Roe was in effect — regulating abortion after fetal viability.

A Dane County judge ruled in late 2023 that the 1849 statute applied to feticide, not consensual abortions. Abortion services, which were halted in the state after Roe was overturned, have since resumed.

Crawford’s opponent, conservative Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel, argued during the campaign that the liberal majority was delaying its ruling in the case “to keep the 1849 law a live issue” in the race.

While working in private practice, Crawford represented Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin in litigation related to abortion access.

Crawford’s victory on Tuesday ensures the court’s upcoming ruling is likely to remain intact — at least for now — meaning abortion will remain legal in Wisconsin.

2. Congressional redistricting

The liberal majority’s decision to throw out the state’s Republican-gerrymandered legislative maps, breaking a GOP lock on the state Legislature, has been its most influential ruling since taking power. As a result, Democrats picked up 14 seats in the Assembly and state Senate in 2024 in a good Republican year nationwide.

However, during the same time period, the high court denied a request to reconsider the state’s congressional maps without stating a reason. The maps were drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, but under a “least change” directive from a previous conservative court, so they remained GOP-friendly. But in the liberal court’s legislative redistricting decision, it overturned the “least change” precedent. Crawford’s victory opens a window for Democrats and their allies to once again challenge the maps, potentially using the argument that the current lines were drawn under rules that have since been rejected.

The future of the congressional districts were a key issue in this year’s state Supreme Court race.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-elect Susan Crawford, left, celebrates alongside Justice Rebecca Dallet after her win in the spring election on April 1, 2025, in Madison, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)

Elon Musk, who spent some $20 million to boost Schimel’s candidacy, said at a rally in Green Bay last weekend that a potential redrawing of the maps is what made the race so important.

He called Tuesday’s election “a vote for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.”

Democrats have pushed a similar idea.

The Democratic leader in the U.S. House, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, last week called Wisconsin’s congressional lines “broken.”

“As soon as possible we need to be able to revisit that and have fairer lines,” he said during an event with DNC Chair Ken Martin. “The only way for that to be even a significant possibility is if you have an enlightened Supreme Court.”

Crawford’s win makes the court friendlier to a potential congressional redistricting lawsuit.

3. Labor rights

A Dane County judge ruled late last year that provisions of Act 10, a Scott Walker-era law that kneecapped public sector labor unions, violated the state constitution. Under the ruling, all public sector workers would have their collective bargaining restored to what it was before the law took effect in 2011.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court in February declined to fast-track an appeal in the case, meaning it must first be decided by a conservative branch of the state Court of Appeals, likely ensuring it won’t come before the high court before the end of the current term.

That means Crawford, who challenged aspects of Act 10 while working as a private attorney, will be on the court when it comes before the justices.

She didn’t answer directly when asked during the race’s only debate if she would recuse herself from the case. But she did note that the provision currently being challenged is different from the one she brought a lawsuit over.

“If the same provision that I was involved in litigating back in those early days was challenged again, I most likely would recuse,” she said.

But with conservative-leaning Justice Brian Hagedorn having already recused from the case, Crawford could step aside and liberals would still have the votes needed to overturn the law.

4. Environmental issues

The high court is currently also considering a case about enforcement of the state’s “Spills Law.”

Enacted in 1978, the law requires people or companies discharging a hazardous substance “to restore the environment to the extent practicable and minimize the harmful effects from the discharge to the air, lands or waters of this state.”

The lawsuit was filed by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s powerful business lobby, in 2021. It argued that the DNR could not require people to test for so-called “forever chemicals” contamination — and require remediation if they’re present — because the agency hadn’t gone through the formal process of designating the chemicals, known as PFAS, as “hazardous substances.” The court’s liberal justices seemed skeptical of WMC’s position during oral arguments in January.

WMC has been a perennial spender in state Supreme Court races. It spent some $2 million targeting Crawford during this year’s race.

Any forthcoming ruling in favor of the DNR is likely safe with Crawford on the court. She was endorsed during the campaign by Wisconsin Conservation Voters.

by Jack Kelly / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch

January 27, 2025

Democrats on Saturday will gather just outside Washington to take an early step in their journey out of the political wilderness: electing their party’s next national chair.

Among the candidates vying to lead the Democratic National Committee is Wisconsin’s Ben Wikler, who has served as chair of the state Democratic Party since 2019. His fiercest competition to lead the national Democratic Party comes from Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chair Ken Martin and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. The three have sparred in recent days over who is leading the race to secure a majority of votes from the DNC’s 448 voting members.

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Wikler’s camp declined Monday morning to share an updated whip count with Wisconsin Watch. As of Friday afternoon, he said 151 voting DNC members were backing his bid. The Martin and O’Malley camps did not respond to questions about updated whip counts, but Martin said last week he had the backing of 200 members. Both Wikler and O’Malley questioned that number, with a Wikler spokesperson calling it “inflated.”

The first candidate to secure 225 votes on Saturday will serve as Democrats’ next national chair. If no candidate reaches that threshold during the first round of voting, the candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated, and members will cast another ballot, repeating the process until a chair is selected.

Wikler’s time as head of the state party has been, by most standards, a success. Capitalizing on the anti-Trump momentum of the 2018 midterms, Democrats have won eight of 11 statewide races since Wikler took over — including the 2020 presidential race and the 2022 gubernatorial election. The state Democratic Party was also instrumental in winning a liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which has remade Wisconsin’s political landscape.

But there have been setbacks: U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson got reelected in an otherwise positive year for Democrats in 2022, and Donald Trump carried the state last year, helping return him to the White House.

Wikler maintains he’s the right person to lead the party, and he says Democrats need to make their party more transparent, change the way they communicate with voters and return to being focused on addressing the needs of working people.

“(Democrats) don’t talk the talk in a way that shows people that they’re fighting the fight,” Wikler said last week during an introspective moment at a candidate forum hosted by the Texas Democratic Party. “And that’s where we need to change.”

A shift in the landscape

Republicans and Democrats alike in Wisconsin said that if Wikler is tapped to lead the national party it will change the political landscape in Wisconsin.

"I know politics. And I love politics. And he is a very good politician," Republican former Gov. Tommy Thompson said of Wikler. "The Democrat Party could do a hell of a lot worse going with somebody else than Ben Wikler."

In fact, Thompson, who congratulated Wikler on his success as state party chair, seems keen on having the Democratic leader move on from his current post.

"I want to contribute to him!" he joked about Wikler while speaking with reporters.

Brian Schimming, chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, also acknowledged that Wikler “is a talented guy.” But he was quick to point out that Wisconsin Democrats came up short on key goals in November. Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t carry the state, U.S. Reps. Derrick Van Orden and Bryan Steil are still in Congress, and Republicans still control the Legislature, Schimming noted. Their only success, the GOP chair claimed, was getting Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin reelected.

“Whether it's Ben or anybody else, that party has a lot of issues,” Schimming said of Democrats. “So they are going to need a lot of people to step up, not just their chair, to fix what's wrong with that party right now.”

While Democratic leaders acknowledge that Wikler moving on to the national party would be a loss for their efforts in Wisconsin, they said it’s time for the national party to choose a leader from a state that has a history of deciding elections.

Wikler helped Wisconsin Democrats crawl out of the political hole they found themselves in in the 2010s, said Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, which gives him experience the national party could lean on.

“He's been very invested in the Legislature, (we’ve) spoken often about our strategy and how to win, and he was involved even in calling candidates and helping recruit people,” Neubauer said. “So it’s, of course, going to be a loss for us, but we’re certainly very supportive of his run for DNC chair.”

Wisconsin Democrats have built out infrastructure that will last beyond Wikler’s time as chair, Neubauer added, pointing to year-round organizing efforts that will persist regardless of who is state party chair.

This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The effort to recall Wisconsin's Assembly Speaker Robin Vos heads to court this morning — a hearing that could make an already messy situation messier.

A Dane County judge is hearing oral arguments about whether to allow organizers of the recall push additional time to respond to a challenge to the effort filed by Vos.

In their petition, recall organizers said there was “good cause for an extension” to respond to Vos because they were awaiting clarity from the Wisconsin Supreme Court about what district boundaries should be used in the recall effort.

The high court complicated that argument last week, when it unanimously rejected a request to determine which district boundaries should be used for recall elections, saying it is the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s responsibility to administer elections, not the court.

In a filing submitted to the Dane County court before the state Supreme Court’s order, attorneys for Vos argued there’s no need for an extension because organizers did not obtain the needed valid signatures “under either potential legislative district map.”

Vos’ attorneys also argued an extension “would be unduly prejudicial to Vos, as it effectively allows the (recall organizers) additional time to cure deficiencies in the Recall petition.”

Neither an attorney for the recall organizers, Kevin Scott, nor attorneys for Vos responded to questions about how they plan to proceed in light of the high court ruling.

WEC is working against an April 11 deadline to determine whether there were sufficient signatures to trigger a recall election.

The saga commenced in January when Matthew Snorek, a Burlington resident, began circulating a recall petition against Vos, the powerful Republican leader of the Assembly and longest-serving speaker in state history. Snorek is seeking to recall Vos over the speaker’s opposition to impeaching Meagan Wolfe, the nonpartisan administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, and earlier pledges to stop Donald Trump from being the GOP presidential nominee. Vos reversed course last month and endorsed Trump.

In March, Snorek said he submitted almost 11,000 signatures to WEC, several thousand more than the 6,850 signatures required to trigger a recall election.

However, an initial review from WEC staff found that recall organizers were short of the necessary signatures from residents in Vos’ district.

The signatures submitted by Snorek were also plagued with claims of fraud. Marie Mutter, who lives in Dover, told Wisconsin Watch in an interview that she and her husband never signed the petition to recall Vos, despite both of their names appearing on the documents submitted by Snorek.

“Honestly, it made me sick to my stomach,” Mutter said of discovering her name had apparently been forged on the petition. “It felt like a punch to the gut.”

The Racine County district attorney is investigating 30 complaints from residents who said their signatures were forged by recall signature collectors.

Vos filed a challenge to the recall petition, arguing that a preliminary WEC review found only 5,905 valid signatures in his old 63rd Assembly District and others that were “plagued with fraud and criminality.”

The speaker also argued that a December Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that the state’s legislative maps were unconstitutional prevents a recall election from occurring in his old district. Vos was moved into the 33rd district under maps drawn by Gov. Tony Evers and approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature.

Vos’ challenge, filed last month, triggered a five-day rebuttal window for recall organizers — a deadline that passed March 26. Snorek asked a Dane County judge on March 25 to extend the rebuttal deadline until after the state Supreme Court determined which district boundaries should be used for a recall election, setting up today’s court hearing.

The speaker has been sharply critical of Snorek and his allies. Speaking at a WisPolitics.com event, Vos called the recall organizers “whack jobs.”

“The people who organized this are so out of touch with reality," Vos said. "And I'm just going to keep saying it over and over again: They are morons. They are stupid."

Late last month, Snorek launched a second recall effort against Vos.

On April 2, voters across Wisconsin will head to the polls to cast a ballot for a number of local elections, but for some races, there will be no one to vote for.

A number of local races across Wisconsin — especially in rural areas — have no candidates, leaving voters with no choice over who will represent them on the local level.

In Calumet County, for example, three districts out of 21 on the County Board failed to draw a single candidate in this election.

It's the same situation across a number of local races throughout rural Wisconsin. When candidates' nomination papers were due in January for the spring election, the Shawano County Board had two seats with no candidates, Shawano City Council had one, Winnebago County Board had two, Sheboygan County Board had two, and Howards Grove Board had one.

And while a few races here and there have no candidates, even more have just one candidate on the ballot. For example, for the Calumet County Board, 66% of the seats are uncontested. For the Winnebago County Board, half of 36 seats are uncontested.

Uncontested elections are a trend seen throughout the country. Data compiled by Ballotpedia shows a decline in U.S. electoral competitiveness since 1972, with Wisconsin showing a steady increase in the number of uncontested races.

In 2023, roughly one-half of Wisconsin's elections were uncontested, according to Ballotpedia's election analysis of over 200 races.

Reasons for the lack of candidates include the time commitment matched with lack of monetary compensation as well as declining participation in local government, according to Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"The positions often entail significant time commitments, do not provide much if any monetary compensation, and subject people to complaints, criticism, and even harassment," Burden told The Post-Crescent.

What happens when no one runs for election?

If an incumbent files noncandidacy and no one returns nomination papers for an elected position, there are two ways to ensure an elected representative fills that role.

Before Election Day, potential candidates can file to become write-in candidates, meaning their names will not be on the ballot and voters will have to write in that candidate's name.

Write-in candidates can — but are not always required to — register with their clerk's office just like any other candidate but can do so after the filing deadline.

If a write-in candidate gets majority votes and accepts the position, the person is sworn into the position just like any other winning candidate.

In northeastern Wisconsin's races with no official candidates, most have had write-in candidates step up to run for those positions.

But if no candidates file for candidacy and there are no write-in candidates to take up the role, the elective body moves to appoint someone to the office.

Following the election, the position is advertised as a vacancy the municipality is looking to fill, and interested people submit applications for the position.

Applications then go to the municipality's executive and elected body to review the applications and essentially hire someone to fill the role for the remainder of the term.

Elected positions are often a thankless job with high scrutiny

Burden suggests the lack of candidates running for local races is due in part to the significant time commitment required for the job and the large amount of scrutiny that comes with it.

Municipal elected positions are often voluntary, requiring a large workload with little or no monetary compensation, making it an unattainable position for many individuals who already work long hours or don't want to take on another job.

"Although local office holders often find their work rewarding, it comes with substantial costs and little public appreciation," Burden told The Post-Crescent.

While elected officials perform vital roles in local governance through balancing municipal budgets and ensuring local services function, they aren't usually in the public eye unless something goes wrong.

And as national political issues such as library book bans or transgender bathroom usage trickle down into local government, people interested in serving local elected positions are deterred from the role because of the extra drama, said David Helpap, an associate professor of public and environmental affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay,

"People may have interest in making sure the school board budget is balanced or that the parks are a good quality, but they don't necessarily want to deal with the national issues that have moved into these local governments," he said.

Aging staffs struggle to recruit young people to elected positions

At the local level, government staff and elected officials skew older, according to Helpap, meaning as rural populations age, more and more government positions open up.

A 2023 study by Helpap on the challenges rural governments face found that local officials are noticing a decline in government participation and a sense of community, making it hard for staff to recruit younger generations to elected positions.

Match that with the decline in rural county populations, and Helpap said there's a "significant concern" from local officials that when older elected officials retire there will be no one to take their place.

While incumbents who have been in the role for many terms bring quality, institutional knowledge to the role, Helpap said there's concern that elected bodies are losing out on new, diverse ideas by not bringing in new and younger people to the roles.

And without new and younger people drawn to local government, voters are often left with no choice of who will represent them.

"Having choice is always important," Helpap said. "You want to make sure the people running are representative of your interests and reflective of the population and new trends."

How to run for local office

Wisconsin's local municipal elections typically fall in April, including anything from town board representatives and mayors to municipal judges and attorneys.

Running for city or county offices starts with filing a declaration of candidacy and campaign registration statement and then taking out nomination papers with the clerk's office in the municipality candidates plan to run.

Candidates take out nomination papers in December for spring elections and must get a certain number of signatures from residents in their representative district to qualify for candidacy. The number of signatures is dependent on the level of office.

Candidates must then return the papers by the first Tuesday in January to be placed on the ballot.

If the nomination papers are valid and a required number of signatures checks out, the candidate is officially in the race for an elected position.

Some town and village elections use caucuses instead of nomination papers, where qualified electors of the municipality nominate and vote for candidates. Interested candidates should reach out to the clerk to find out when the caucus is.

Following nomination, candidates are required to continuously file campaign finance reports with the clerk, detailing how they are financing their campaign.

Between nomination and the election, candidates must sell themselves to their constituency, sharing their issue priorities and how they'll act if elected to gather enough support in hopes of winning the election.

Partisan local elections are held in the fall. This fall, the seats up for election include district attorney, county clerk, county treasurer, and register of deeds.

Candidates can start circulating nomination papers on April 15, and they are due at 5 p.m. June 3.