Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford, a George Soros-backed liberal, defended her decision to significantly reduce a sentence for a convicted child molester who had repeatedly assaulted a five-year-old girl, in a 2020 case during Wednesday night’s heated debate against conservative candidate Brad Schimel.

The debate, which was to be the only debate for the high court seat race before the April 1 election, was moderated by ABC affiliate WISN 12 at Marquette University Law School. The winner of the race will determine whether conservatives or liberals will control the state’s high court, as justices are expected to hear cases involving abortion, gender identity and the power behind labor unions. 

During a debate segment where candidates were asked about the multi-million-dollar ads they’d aired criticizing each other’s judicial records, Crawford – a judge on the Dane County Circuit Court – was questioned by the moderator about a controversial sexual assault case involving a five-year-old girl she had ruled in.

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“In 2020, you did sentence a child sex offender to four years in prison after prosecutors requested 10. Do you regret that sentence?” the moderator asked Crawford.

“I don’t regret that sentence, because I followed the law in that case, as I always do,” Crawford responded. “I applied the law, which says that judges have to consider every relevant factor in sentencing, you have to consider both the aggravating and mitigating factors, and the Supreme Court has said you have to order the minimum amount of prison time you believe is necessary to protect the public. That’s what I did in that case and every other case.”

“And my goal is always to keep the community safe. And those have been sentences that have been successful, they have kept the community safe,” she said. “Unlike the short jail sentences that Brad Schimmel has entered over and over, where people have gone on to commit new crimes, that’s when you know the sentence has failed.”

The moderator then turned to ask Schimel about his record of delaying testing of thousands of sexual assault evidence kits – a central focus of Crawford’s campaign ads against him – nearly a decade ago as the then-attorney general. 

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“Some of the ads people have seen about you, Judge Schimel, nine rape kits tested in your first two years as the Attorney General. Do you regret that?” the moderator asked.

Schimel, who currently serves as a judge on the Waukesha County Circuit Court, instead used his answer time to fire shots at Crawford’s decision in the child sexual assault case. 

“My opponent just revealed the problem in her judgment, that, in weighing all the factors, giving the minimum amount of time to a dangerous offender weighs higher than protecting the community,” Schimel said. “That’s what she just revealed.”

“That is not what I said,” Crawford said. “The court requires you to order the sentence necessary to protect the community, and that’s what I’ve done, and that’s what those sentences did.”

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Crawford, backed by a $1 million donation from progressive philanthropist George Soros and $500,000 from Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker — a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender — also traded barbs with Schimel over his million-dollar donations from Tesla CEO and head of DOGE Elon Musk’s political action committees. 

The high-profile candidates also sparred over abortion, an upcoming state voter ID ballot measure and President Donald Trump. 

The Wisconsin Supreme Court currently has a 4-3 liberal majority.