City, Film
Film: Tuesday, October 14th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, The Life of Chuck
by JOHN ADAMS •
Tuesday, October 14th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of The Life of Chuck @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Drama/Fantasy/Whimsy Rated R (language)
1 hour, 51 minutes (2025)
Based on a short story by Stephen King. Praised for its deep, thought-provoking themes about life, death and human connection. Three chapters in the life of an ordinary man, Charles Krantz (Tom Hiddleston). Also stars Mark Hamill.
One can find more information about The Life of Chuck at the Internet Movie Database.
Culture, Daily Bread, Faraway Places, Packers, Sports, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 10.9.25: Japanese Packers Fans Subject of New Documentary
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 64. Sunrise is 7:01 and sunset is 6:21, for 11 hours 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 91 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM, and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Commission meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1919, the Cincinnati Reds win the World Series, resulting in the Black Sox Scandal.
There’s an upcoming documentary that captures the far-reaching influence of the Green Bay Packers — all the way around the world to Tokyo:
For Wisconsin native Ty Morse, his scheme to bring two dozen Green Bay Packers fans from the heart of Tokyo to Lambeau Field seemed surreal.
“It did not feel real until they arrived at Austin Straubel airport in Green Bay,” Morse told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “When they finally arrived, and then they saw everything was taken care of, that was literally the first moment for me that (I thought), ‘Wow. This is all happening.’”
Morse is one of the central figures in a new documentary following a group of fans dubbed the “Japanese Packers Cheering Team” and their first trip to Green Bay.
…
Morse invited members of the cheering team to travel across the world and stay with two friends in Green Bay. Twenty-four members showed up. Morse said having the fans attend house parties in Green Bay and stay in his friends’ homes was an interesting wrinkle of their experience.
“In Japan, you don’t go to people’s homes often. The homes are small. Home life is very private,” Morse said. “So, I think that the component of hanging out at these homes, having meals with people, having a beer, sitting across the table in somebody’s kitchen or living room, that was a huge part of the bonding experience, as well.”
See Trevor Hook, Documentary follows Japanese Packers fans’ pilgrimage to Green Bay (‘No Packers, No Life’ premieres for general audiences Oct. 15 at Marcus Majestic Cinema in Waukesha), Wisconsin Public Radio, October 7, 2025.
See also No Packers, No Life documentary website.
Daily Bread, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Josh Kaul, Politics, State Government, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 10.8.25: Wisconsin Attorney General Kaul Declines Governor’s Race
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 62. Sunrise is 7:00 and sunset is 6:23, for 11 hours 23 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 97 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1862, the Confederate invasion of Kentucky is halted at the Battle of Perryville:
Following the Battle of Perryville, the Union maintained control of Kentucky for the rest of the war. Historian James M. McPherson considers Perryville to be part of a great turning point of the war, “when battles at Antietam and Perryville threw back Confederate invasions, forestalled European mediation and recognition of the Confederacy, perhaps prevented a Democratic victory in the northern elections of 1862 that might have inhibited the government’s ability to carry on the war, and set the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation which enlarged the scope and purpose of the conflict.”
Yesterday, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced, as expected, that he would not run for governor, but instead seek re-election:
Wisconsin’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul announced Tuesday that he will not run for governor, opting instead to seek a third term as the state’s top law enforcement official.
The governor’s race is wide open after Democratic incumbent Tony Evers, 73, announced this summer that he won’t seek reelection. The race will be the highest-profile contest on the ballot, but it has even greater significance this cycle as Democrats look to hold the office and take control of the Legislature for the first time since 2010.
More than half-a-dozen Democrats have announced plans to run in the August primary. Kaul would have been the de facto front-runner had he joined, given his large base of support and two statewide election victories.
The most prominent candidates in the Democratic primary scramble include Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez; Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley; state Sen. Kelda Roys; state Rep. Francesca Hong; and former Wisconsin Economic Development Commission leader Missy Hughes. Former lieutenant governor and 2022 U.S. Senate candidate Mandela Barnes said Tuesday in the wake of Kaul’s decision that he’s “strongly considering” entering the race.
See Todd Richmond, Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general won’t run for governor and will seek reelection instead, Associated Press, October 7, 2025.
In a re-election campaign for attorney general, as Richmond reports, Kaul will likely face Republican Eric Toney, Fond du Lac County’s district attorney. (Kaul defeated Toney in the close 2022 attorney general’s race, 50.64% to 49.31%.)
Also expected, as Richmond reports, Mandela Barnes is likely to enter the Democratic primary for governor. If so, then the WisDems primary field will have all its significant candidates (and a few long shots, too).
Is there a clear primary formula for the WisDems as there is for the WISGOP? One can see its outline even now. Two elements are present: (1) opposition to federal policy and (2) an ability to reassure Wisconsinites (including those not already committed to the WisDems) that that opposition will be practical and consistent over the candidate’s term.
As with the WISGOP, national issues will have an outsized impact on the 2026 WisDems primary race.
Fly over Mars’ Xanthe Terra highland region and its 3.5 billion-year-old channels:
Daily Bread, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Politics, State Government, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 10.7.25: Tom Tiffany’s Changes to His Campaign Website on Past Policies Won’t Matter
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be increasingly sunny with a high of 74. Sunrise is 6:59 and sunset is 6:25, for 11 hours 26 minutes of daytime. The moon was full last night with 99.7 percent of its visible disk now illuminated.
The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1774, Wisconsin becomes part of Quebec:
On this date Britain passed the Quebec Act, making Wisconsin part of the province of Quebec. Enacted by George III, the act restored the French form of civil law to the region. The Thirteen Colonies considered the Quebec Act as one of the “Intolerable Acts,” as it nullified Western claims of the coast colonies by extending the boundaries of the province of Quebec to the Ohio River on the south and to the Mississippi River on the west. [Source: Avalon Project at the Yale Law School]
Sometimes a revelation about a candidate’s writing or a reading list becomes a scandal, as with now-former candidate for governor Bill Berrien. Berrien professed conservative political views, but his private reading list showed an interest in topics and people he publicly derided. Berrien’s problem was his intolerant hypocrisy.
Today, in the Journal Sentinel, there’s a story about WISGOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany’s deletions to his private website (tomtiffany.com) that have removed far-right positions on reproductive rights, among other issues:
The Wayback Machine, which preserves snapshots of websites, shows that Tiffany had a webpage as of Sept. 17 that listed a bunch of hot-button issues and his positions on them. That includes abortion, gun rights, immigration, crime and communist China.
But check tomtiffany.com today, and you’ll notice that the “issues” page is gone, replaced by a list of bland “solutions,” such as “Protect what makes Wisconsin great” and “Lower costs for every Wisconsinite.” The new “solutions” page makes no mention of guns, one mention of immigration and China and nothing on the deficit or abortion.
But here’s what is interesting about this: Tiffany and his team made the switch in the days leading up to his announcement on Sept. 23 that he is running as a Republican for Wisconsin governor in 2026.
See Daniel Bice, Rep. Tom Tiffany erases abortion, gun rights and other issues from personal website, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 7, 2025.
Well … that’s not a bold course to take, but it’s not hypocritical. But then, no one thinks Tom Tiffany (except perhaps Tom Tiffany) is a bold man in any event.
If, however, Tiffany’s campaign thinks that removing his views from his website will change the public understanding that he holds those views, then his campaign is confused. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany — now a gubernatorial candidate — is and will be associated with those positions whether or not he removes them from a website. (Indeed, for WISGOP voters, those views are among the reasons that rank-and-file party members would support Tiffany.)
Tiffany will never seem moderate to voters. His past views will be part of myriad WisDem ads, mailers, and social media posts during the campaign. He’ll not be able to distance himself from those positions. (On the contrary, Tiffany’s success in a primary depends on convincing WISGOP voters that he holds these positions; his chance of success in a general election depends on maximizing turnout among those voters.)
It’s not a scandal that Tiffany’s campaign is downplaying his past positions, but it is a sign of his campaign’s misunderstanding of the upcoming race.
A Day in the Life of a 102-Year-Old French Yogi:
Daily Bread, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Politics, Speaker Vos, State Government, Tommy Thompson, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP
Daily Bread for 10.6.25: Assessing Teasers and Speculation About Wisconsin Elections for 2026
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 74. Sunrise is 6:58 and sunset is 6:26, for 11 hours 29 minutes of daytime. The moon is full this evening with 99.5 percent of its visible disk now illuminated.
The Whitewater School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets at 4:30 PM. Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1995, the first planet orbiting another sun, 51 Pegasi b, is discovered.
This fall is a season of teasers, rumors, and developments about Wisconsin’s 2026 elections. Each week brings something new. Some of the latest, with an assessment, appears below.
Octogenarian Tommy Thompson’s serial teasing about another governor’s race. He’s at it again:
Tommy Thompson has been elected Wisconsin governor four times — a state record — and the 83-year-old is considering whether to try to make it five.
Thompson, a Republican, says he is seriously considering running for governor in 2026 — potentially disrupting a fairly quiet GOP primary whose frontrunner at the moment is U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany.
Though considered broadly popular during his tenure, Thompson has not been on a ballot in more than a decade.
See Molly Beck, What to know about Tommy Thompson, the 4-times elected Wisconsin governor considering another run, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 3, 2020.
When Thompson was last on a ballot, he lost to Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin’s 2012 U.S. Senate race (by six points: 51% to 45%). Our political climate is less amenable to Thompson’s politics now than in ’12. It’s unlikely that Thompson will run, but it’s impossible to imagine that he’d do well. As with Scott Walker, these teasers about running in 2026 are preening; if either did run, they’d get plucked. (See also We Weren’t Teasing, Scott Walker Was Teasing!)
Thompson’s statements say something about Thompson (remember me, please!), but also about Tom Tiffany (that Tiffany’s not an exciting WISGOP candidate for 2026). If Tiffany were an exciting candidate, Thompson wouldn’t be teasing about his own candidacy. Thompson opportunistically praised RFK Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary when he thought RFK Jr. had a brighter future. (See Wisconsin Octogenarian Desperate for Attention and Relevance.) There’s no bandwagoning for Tiffany.
Whether Robin Vos will run again for the Wisconsin Assembly. This isn’t the first time that Vos has mentioned that he might not run again:
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the longest serving assembly speaker in Wisconsin history, said he’s considering not running for reelection in 2026 on WISN-TV’s “Upfront.”
Vos, a Republican from Rochester who has served as assembly speaker since 2013, said in an interview aired on Oct. 5 he will decide whether or not to seek reelection in 2026 early next year.
“I’m trying to think through, like, I’ve done this for a long time,” Vos said. “How long am I going to do it? I don’t know. Now that Tony Evers is leaving, I’m kind of excited about the fact of working with a different governor, so I just have to decide.”
“I won’t decide until sometime in January,” he added.
Vos previously considered retiring in 2024, but he said a recall effort, backed by supporters of President Donald Trump, “reengaged” him and motivated him to seek another term.
See Francesca Pica, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he’s considering not running for reelection in 2026, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 5, 2025.
FREE WHITEWATER has a category dedicated to Vos, a gentleman who fell upward like no one in recent Wisconsin political history. It’s laughable to think that Vos is calculating a race based on who the next governor will be — he’s calculating a race based on who the next Assembly speaker will be. If he thinks the WISGOP will be in the minority, he won’t run.
Missy Hughes resigns from the WEDC to run for governor — this one’s not a rumor:
The former head of the state’s economic development agency is running for governor as a Democrat, saying her business experience sets her apart from the field.
Missy Hughes was the secretary and CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. from 2019 until she stepped down earlier this month. Prior to that, she served as an executive at the Organic Valley dairy cooperative for 17 years.
See Shawn Johnson, Former WEDC CEO Missy Hughes joins Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor, Wisconsin Public Radio, September 29, 2025.
It’s hard to see to whom Hughes’s campaign would be appealing in 2026. The WisDems are further left ideologically (center-left, progressive) and the WISGOP further right (right-wing populism) than a candidate with a business-government cooperation approach. Someone with Hughes’s general background would have done better in the ’80s or ’90s (although the WEDC was formed later than that).
There’s much about 2026 that’s yet to be decided, but one influence that’s certain. Wisconsin voters’ views of federal policy will shape the 2026 state races, whichever candidates are nominated.
Villagers climb Mount Everest to help hundreds of hikers trapped by snowstorm:
Music
Monday Music: Stan Getz and Bill Evans, Melinda
by JOHN ADAMS •
Animals, Daily Bread, Nature, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 10.5.25: Three Thousand Wisconsin Bats
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:57 and sunset is 6:28, for 11 hours 32 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 96.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1846, Wisconsin’s first state constitutional convention meets:
The convention sat until December 16, 1846. The Convention was attended by 103 Democrats and 18 Whigs. The proposed constitution failed when voters refused to accept several controversial issues: an anti-banking article, a homestead exemption (which gave $1,000 exemption to any debtor), providing women with property rights, and black suffrage. The following convention, the Second Constitutional Convention of Wisconsin in 1847-48, produced and passed a constitution that Wisconsin still very much follows today.
Beatrice Lawrence reports on a dance of 3,000 bats:
It was 4 a.m. and dark. J. Paul White greeted about 20 people. He’s the bat program lead at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Bureau of Natural Heritage Conservation.
“There must be a lot of birders here, you guys are ready to go,” White whispered.
The group found their seats and waited quietly for the show to start. As the sun slowly rose, we started to see the bats — dancing.
This field trip to Nelson Dewey State Park was organized by the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, a nonprofit that works to protect the state’s lands, waters and wildlife. This particular group camped out to see the Stonefield colony of little brown bats as they emerged to feed at sunset.
We were also there to witness the bats’ return as a swarm at dawn: all 3,000 of them.
…
According to Redell, the state of Wisconsin plays an especially important role for little brown bats in the U.S. Nearly half of little brown bats in the country hibernate in just a few Wisconsin mines.
Little brown bats are endangered in the U.S. Like many species of hibernating bats, their population has been threatened by a fungal infection called White Nose Syndrome. But in recent years, Wisconsin’s little brown bats have shown signs of recovery.
See Beatrice Lawrence, A Dance of 3,000 bats: Watching the Morning Swarm at Nelson Dewey State Park (‘Each year, the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin organizes hundreds of trips to get people in touch with the natural world and show them conservation projects — like bat monitoring — in action’), Wisconsin Public Radio, October 2, 2025.
Can Owls Turn Their Heads 360 Degrees?:
Agriculture, Daily Bread, Tariffs, Trade, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 10.4.25: Tariffs and Trade War Hit Wisconsin’s Soybean Farmers
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 85. Sunrise is 6:56 and sunset is 6:30, for 11 hours 34 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 91.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1957, Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
Someone once said that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.” He was wrong:
This parachute is full of holes and that’s a good thing:
CDA, City, Daily Bread, Development, Housing
Daily Bread for 10.3.25: A Few General Remarks on Development in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 86. Sunrise is 6:54 and sunset is 6:32, for 11 hours 37 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 83.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1863, President Lincoln declares the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
For today, a few general words on development. The particulars of any claims made below will come later as part of a discussion the City of Whitewater plans to advance on single-family housing proposals for the community. (That discussion will be welcome and timely. See An Upcoming Presentation on Development.)
Normal discussions. Discussions on development happen all the time in well-functioning communities across Wisconsin. The economic forces that shape these discussions do not begin with policymakers. These needs and desires arise from within a community, from among many residents. (There are local discussions across Wisconsin like Whitewater’s, there are state-level discussions in Wisconsin like this, and there are national discussions like this.) When a few insist that they have what they call ‘our tradition,’ they mean their narrow self-interest over the community interest.
Pretending that proposals on development are intrusions on the community ignores the many in this community for the sake of a few.
Whitewater. In all of this discussion, a reminder is worthwhile. Whitewater is a city of fifteen thousand, and its local government is by law bound to the electorate of this city. Whitewater has not elected a common council to represent people in other communities, but the electorate in this community. It’s understandable to be polite to visitors to the council lectern, but it is a duty to represent those who live within the city limits. Those on council, boards, and commissions owe a duty residents within this city.
Communities outside Whitewater should not be determining Whitewater’s economic future.
Flow. Anyone who follows the flow of the arguments1 on development in this community has seen that claims against projects have grown ever more extreme: anti-funding arguments about apartments have become anti-funding arguments about any kind of residence, which then morphed into arguments against any funding for anything, and thereafter descended into claims against any development and any growth.2
It has been a predictable decline from a critique (however incoherent and hypocritical of their own past work) to obstruction.
Stagnation is decline. Doing too little in the past, and doing it poorly, has left Whitewater behind. Standing still will increase the gap between this city and nearby cities of similar size. America doesn’t stand still, Wisconsin doesn’t stand still, and prosperous communities across this state do not stand still.
Staying the same is falling behind, and falling behind means a harder time meeting residents’ basic needs.
Plans from the local government for housing and business development within the City of Whitewater? A reasonable, thoughtful person will welcome this discussion with interest and curiosity.
_____
- Listening and marking the arguments against development is the equivalent of watching a someone throw objects against a wall, hoping something will stick. ↩︎
- Past opposition from the last decade (2010s) to project funding in Whitewater is easily and reasonably distinguished: the funding bases were different then, the goals were ill-defined then, and the officials running development were out of their depth (to state the matter generously). ↩︎
Bear enters Arizona grocery store and runs through aisles:
Cats, Nature
Friday Catblogging: New Hampshire Bobcat Strolls Along Driveway
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, October 7th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Superman
by JOHN ADAMS •
Tuesday, October 7th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Superman @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Action/Adventure Rated PG-13
2 hours, 9 minutes (2025)
The never ending battle for truth, justice and the human way. Superman faces innumerable challenges including arch nemesis Lex Luthor, Kaiju, pocket universes, Kryptonite and a totalitarian dictator. All in a superhero’s day’s work!
One can find more information about Superman at the Internet Movie Database.
City, Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.2.25: ‘What Ails, What Heals’ and What’s Changed
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 6:53 and sunset is 6:33, for 11 hours 40 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 74.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1766, the Nottingham Cheese Riot breaks out at the Goose Fair in Nottingham, UK, in response to the excessive cost of cheese.
In November 2022, a FREE WHITEWATER post assessed conditions in the city and listed What Ails, What Heals. Below is a summary of that post (with the full text linked above). This list of what ails, written in the fall of 2022 was, by intention, a look at conditions then and in the generation before.
What ails:
- Boosterism. The view that if one accentuates the positive, the community will reap economic gains.
- Toxic Positivity. The view that every outlook should be a positive one.
- Regulatory Capture. Government should be limited, responsible, and humble. Whitewater’s government is not by law, and never should be in practice, the private property of a few. The last generation has seen the special-interest manipulations of landlords, bankers, and public-relations men.
- Populism. Whether of left or right, populism sweeps individual rights aside for the sake of the group, cadre, or horde, while demonizing all others.
- Closed government.
- News Deserts. We don’t have a professional press in Whitewater, and that’s a huge loss.
- Violence. Violence includes sexual harassment and assault, or unjustified use of official force, and the supportive reflex only to look the other way.
And what heals:
- Free Markets. Voluntary transactions between people and groups uplift from poverty into a true prosperity.
- Charity. Our small city is beautiful, yet beautiful while in need. Government, politics, business, journalism, and commentary have not been enough to alleviate all loss and suffering. (With reference to the historical example and importance of Dorothy Day: Waiting for Whitewater’s Dorothy Day.)
- Tragic Optimism. A true optimism, that forges on despite the occasional tragedies that befall a community. See Tragic Optimism as an Alternative to Toxic Positivity.
- Open Government. Government is a mere instrumentality, established for limited purposes, constrained by law. It must be obvious and transparent to the people from whom its authority derives.
- Impartial Government. Whitewater doesn’t have a few stakeholders — she has 14,889 residents.
- A Professional Press. The city could use greater focus and respect for professional journalism.
- Individual Rights. Each person is accorded by right an equal moral and legal status. No one forgotten, no one swept aside, no one by birth or birthplace greater than another.
If this was a look at conditions in 2022 and during the generation before, then has anything changed?
Yes, in these three years the municipal government has grown more open (by far), more professional (by far), and more empirical in its approach (again, by far). It’s not a close comparison between what Whitewater had before 2022 and what she’s had since. (There’s a difference between being a critic of government and being blind to genuine improvement.)
If this was a look at conditions in 2022 and in the generation before, then was anything missing from the list?
Looking at the list, residents in productive Wisconsin cities of similar size would have noticed that this libertarian blogger made no mention of ordinary development. A resident elsewhere might have said, “you mentioned free markets, but you left out any mention of development.”
That’s true. Whitewater before then was a place of regulatory capture that prevented normal development, and the best that one could expect was to juxtapose general principles (markets, impartiality) against a small, selfish cronyism that had this community in its grip. Whitewater has always been beautiful; she always deserved better than fifteen domineering over fifteen thousand.
The chance to live and flourish as a beautiful city of normal development is now before us. That’s a subject worth visiting many times in the months ahead.
October 2025 Skywatching Tips from NASA:
0:00 Intro
0:13 Supermoon
0:51 International Observe the Moon Night
1:14 Draconid meteor shower
1:53 Orionid meteor shower
3:00 October Moon phases
Courts, Daily Bread, Elections, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 10.1.25: Wisconsin Supreme Court Election Field Likely Set as Taylor v. Lazar
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 77. Sunrise is 6:52 and sunset is 6:35, for 11 hours, 43 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 65.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1971, Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida.
Chris Taylor is running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and after incumbent Rebecca Bradley decided against running for reelection, Maria Lazar declared her candidacy yesterday:
Lazar’s announcement came a month after Bradley said she wasn’t seeking reelection. In the statement announcing her decision, Bradley called on the conservative movement to “take stock of its failures, identify the problem, and fix it.”
Lazar, 61, has been on the Waukesha-based District 2 Court of Appeals since 2022. She previously served as a Waukesha County judge, an assistant attorney general under Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, and as an attorney in private practice.
She is entering an open race for a seat on the court that’s controlled 4-3 by liberals.
Taylor, who launched her bid in May, will have the support of Democrats. She is a judge on the Madison-based District 4 Court of Appeals.
It’s unclear whether other candidates will get in the race.
Taylor’s campaign has reported raising more than $1 million and was sitting on more than $500,000 by June 30. Lazar reported having only about $1,000 in her campaign account in her last report.
See Mary Spicuzza, Maria Lazar launches Wisconsin Supreme Court campaign, taking over conservative lane from Rebecca Bradley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 1, 2025.
A few remarks:
The spring general election for the court is in April 2026. While others might enter the race, Taylor and Lazar are likely to be the leading candidates.
It’s a nonpartisan race, yet it’s not. Taylor is the WisDems’ candidate and Lazar the WISGOP’s candidate.
Lazar will raise enough to get on television, as there are plenty of conservative donors inside and outside Wisconsin ready to spend.
Pending Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions will affect the April election, notably among them any final decisions on Act 10 and congressional district boundaries. Even so, we live in a nationalized political environment; national events are sure to play a significant role in voter turnout and preferences next year.
Best guess: this race favors Taylor, though not prohibitively so.
Chunk, a 1,200-pound bear with a broken jaw, wins Alaska’s Fat Bear Week contest: