You wanna call something a mandate? Weigh the weighty win in Wisconsin. Elon Musk and his millions to give out may soon be relegated to simply a seat behind the wheel of one of his Teslas, or in the back seat, as he may be shown the door. The rock band by that name may also have fizzled from the scene, and the inventor named Tesla is long gone too.
Democratic judge Susan Crawford’s victory over Musk-adopted and money-thrown Brad Schimel was unexpectedly easy, showing that voters — and I never thought they would — can grasp the great complexities and nasty nuances of sentencing certain criminals effectively. And if you look close, the candidates were much in agreement.
Further study also revealed, more fully, that so much of the content of all those political flyers was just so much bunk. So very confusing that even critiquing them was hard to do because you didn’t know exactly what it was that you were debunking. (Along the same level of clarity as picking Zeppelin above or below Sabbath.) This state race had the most money thrown at it, than any other judicial race that we have seen. At those rates, both sides, you could even at 2025 prices have the where-with-all to get tickets to both shows, (and multiple nights if you are in a big town.)
I start with a reading of the reality, and not Master of Reality, an Ozzy tool. If you want to know more on all that has to be weighed in various parties coming to the sentencing table, look at the lengthy and involved coverage by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. A prime point: Judges in such prominent cases in particular, need to rather closely follow prosecutor guidelines, and both candidates seemed to do so. The flyers, often did not come from the candidates themselves, but they didn’t seem to ask those other groups that named them, many times PACs, to tone it down either, if they even could accomplish that squelching. So much of this dark PR made it sound like the offenders hardly even saw the inside of a jail or prison cell, and were out very quickly as even hourly on bond, which even itself usually has you-can-reference guidelines, although Wisconsin is woefully short on such, seen as a problem. And as we have seen locally, DA’s may only take on cases they know they can win, or cop a plea deal in problematic ones, to potentially save face. This is also referenced in ads.
The flyers supporting Schimel, from a group out of Texas, America PAC, only cited two cases of what they called excessive leniency by Crawford. One of these young men was 19 when arrested, had special needs and his fitness for trial was questioned, as were his chances of getting access to rehabilitation resources if in prison. He had been kept in holding status in jail for months, (atypical?), which has been found to increase the likeliness to reoffend.
The reasoning of the flyer was hard to follow. It cited “releasing child molesters and rapists back into our community,” when the reality is that unless you serve a full life term, that release is going to happen at some point. In another case, cited was a reduction of charges, which suggests using verbal phrases to describe these, then listed a length in years, something that didn’t fit. It said that at issue in the election was supporting the agenda of President Trump and cited securing our borders. A Wisconsin Supreme Court justice does little that affect that situation, just as they don’t often get involved with sentencing individuals.
All of this seems more like a question of a judge’s ability to hold people in custody, and allowance of no cash bail, and this had been on my list of things to address with a post. The following is an example.
A man I know of is a respected, I assume, and successful businessman but when he and his significant other go out for a couple of drinks each, he often gets a little owly and uses a bit of foul language. To the point that he would be on the border of being at risk if a police officer saw the behavior. He once got upset and scrutinized her about how she had voted on a few questions.
This is not important as far as being gossipy tidbits. It is important in noting that if something got a bit out of hand, as far as being loud, someone like him could be a poster child of the need for no cash bail.
But much farther along, in sentencing, it’s recognized that judges should follow recommendations by prosecutors fairly closely. Crawford was the candidate who at times strayed from such plans just a bit more than Schimel, but both remained in range. It has been noted that she comes from a liberal county and he a conservative one, so it could follow that one set of prosecutors would ask for more jail time than the other.
(In general, ironically and to make a musical comparison, decades-long national band leader and rocker Steve Miller, recently feted, has his feet early on in the county of both candidates. However, his anthem Fly Like An Eagle in particular, and song themes overall, fits better with the Madison crowd.)