Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 51. Sunrise is 7:11 and sunset is 5:05, for 9 hours, 55 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1933, Hitler takes office as the Chancellor of Germany.
I’m not sure what to make of a story that finds the Wisconsin Supreme Court race effectually partisan. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has been partisan for many years. Still, someone feels the need to explain this to Wisconsin readers:
As with each one before them, Wisconsin’s next Supreme Court justice pledges to be “impartial” when ruling from the bench.
But the current race for that coveted seat has been — and will continue to be — anything but politically neutral.
Indeed, the two candidates are repeatedly pointing out the other’s political ties leading up to the April 1 general election, and the two major political parties have lined up behind their preferred candidate, animated by the prospect that voters could again flip the court’s ideological majority.
One hears that even a broken clock is right twice a day, and so it’s Brad Schimel (of all people) who explains the state of affairs accurately:
In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Schimel said he didn’t see a retreat from the overt partisanship of state Supreme Court races coming any time soon.
“It’s just become that way, that liberal judicial candidates will associate with the Democratic Party and conservative judicial candidates will end up affiliating with the Republican Party,” he said, adding that each campaign needs grassroots support. “The question isn’t whether you have a political affiliation. It’s whether you can set that aside when you get on the bench.”
See Alison Dirr and Daniel Bice, Just how partisan are the candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court? Here are the details, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 30, 2025.
Indeed: that is a question.
The choice for voters, however, depends on what one prefers from the partisan alternatives on offer.
Drone captures hundreds of dolphins along the California coast: