Supreme Costs: Wisconsin’s pricey and partisan high court elections

Wisconsin Supreme Court races have become everything they were never meant to be — highly partisan, astronomically expensive national political battles in which the candidates’ ideologies overshadow their qualifications for an office that requires them to swear an oath to “administer justice … faithfully and impartially.” This series examines the record spending in these elections, how Wisconsin became a national outlier and what can be done about it.

Wisconsin Supreme Court elections have drawn an ‘obscene’ amount of spending. Here’s why and what can be done about it.

Loose campaign finance laws, lax recusal rules, a purple electorate and even the spring election cycle all help explain why high court races have become so expensive.

Unlimited donations, weak recusal rules led to record Wisconsin Supreme Court spending

Democrats seek to revive public financing of Supreme Court elections after previous attempts failed.

Sick of those state Supreme Court campaign ads, Wisconsin? Here’s how other states avoid them

Polls show Wisconsin prefers to elect justices, but the timing, term limits and vetting of candidates could be different.

Supreme Costs: A condensed version of our series on the ‘obscene’ spending on Wisconsin justices

In a three-part series, Wisconsin Watch examines why our state set back-to-back national records in Supreme Court election spending and what can be done about it.