MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul waded into the state’s Supreme Court race Monday, renewing an old feud with conservative candidate Brad Schimel over delays in testing sexual assault evidence kits almost a decade ago.

Kaul, a Democrat, ousted Schimel, then a Republican, from the attorney general post in the 2018 elections. Kaul hammered Schimel relentlessly during the campaign for taking more than two years to test about 4,000 kits sitting unanalyzed on police department and hospital shelves.

Schimel’s opponent in the Supreme Court race, Susan Crawford, has attacked Schimel over his handling of the kits in ads. Kaul brought up the delays again Monday during an afternoon news conference organized by the state Democratic Party. He accused Schimel of not paying close attention to the testing project and prematurely declaring he had completed the work when his administration left hundreds of kits for Kaul’s administration to test.

When asked what the testing delays have to do with being a state Supreme Court justice, Kaul said justices must be straightforward and Schimel isn’t candid about what went on with the kits.

Schimel defended himself in the days before the 2018 election by saying the state Justice Department needed time to inventory the kits and struggled to find private labs to test them because labs were overwhelmed with untested kits from other states. Jacob Fisher, Schimel’s Supreme Court campaign spokesperson, said in a statement Monday that Schimel voluntarily took the initiative to lead a first-of-its-kind effort to test the kits. He accused Kaul of playing politics and rewriting history.

Schimel and Crawford are vying for an open seat on the Supreme Court in an April 1 election. The race is officially nonpartisan, but Schimel was a Republican attorney general and has GOP backing while Democrats are rallying behind Crawford.

The race has enormous implications in swing state Wisconsin, with majority control of the state’s highest court on the line as it is expected to face issues that will affect abortion and reproductive rights, the strength of public sector unions, voting rules and congressional district boundaries.

Crawford and her allies are increasingly trying to nationalize the contest against Schimel by focusing on Elon Musk, a top adviser to President Donald Trump. America PAC, a group created by Musk, has spent $3.2 million on digital ads, mailers and canvassing to support Schimel in the Supreme Court race. Another Musk-funded group, Building America’s Future, has spent more than $2 million on TV ads attacking Crawford.

In 2014, the state Justice Department learned of some 6,800 sexual assault evidence kits that had not been tested. They went unanalyzed for various reasons. Prosecutors may have decided cases were too weak to pursue or been forced to drop cases because victims wouldn’t cooperate, according to Schimel’s administration.

The problem wasn’t unique to Wisconsin. A USA Today Network investigation in 2015 found at least 70,000 untested kits nationwide, leading to calls from victim advocacy groups to analyze them all in hopes of getting DNA hits that would identify serial offenders.

Schimel took over as attorney general in 2015. He secured a $4 million federal grant in September of that year to start testing Wisconsin’s kits, but the work didn’t begin until January 2017. He announced in September 2018, two months before the election, that his administration had finished testing 4,150 kits and declared the project finished. He chose not to test the rest because victims in those cases wouldn’t consent to analysis or prosecutors had already won a conviction in those cases, according to Schimel’s administration at the time.

Kaul announced in November 2019 that his administration finished the work after discovering Schimel had left about 300 kits untested.

MADISON – A team can’t lose to one of the worst squads in its conference without suffering repercussions in the national rankings the next week.

Wisconsin took a hit this week.

The Badgers men’s basketball team, which was upset by Penn State on Saturday at the Kohl Center, dropped six spots in the Associated Press poll to No. 18. The voters for the USA Today coaches poll were kinder to UW, dropping it just two spots for the 86-75 loss to the Nittany Lions.

Both polls were released Monday.

More: Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball March Madness projections, bracketology

Despite the fall, Wisconsin, which is 23-8 and finished the Big Ten tied for fourth place with a 13-7 record, is ranked in both polls for the eighth straight week.

UW is one of seven Big Ten teams in the top 25 this week. Here is how the rest of the conference stands in the polls: Michigan State (No. 7 AP/ No. 6 coaches), Maryland (11/11), Purdue (20/20), Michigan (22/21), Oregon (23/not ranked) and Illinois (24/25).

The Badgers are the No. 5 seed for the Big Ten tournament. They will face the winner of the Northwestern-Minnesota first-round game at approximately 1:30 p.m. Thursday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

More: Might be best if Badgers flush this Penn State game as soon as possible

The top-ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey team will be the overall No. 1 seed for the 2025 NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament.

The Badgers host Clarkson and Boston University beginning Thursday, with the winner of that contest advancing to face Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.

Wisconsin has now qualified 12 straight times for the national tournament and 19th overall – which is second-most in NCAA history. They have captured seven championships, which leads the country.

LaBahn Arena, home to the Badgers, has been a perfect place to open tournament action, as Wisconsin is 7-0-0 all-time, outscoring the opposition a combined 32-2 in those games. 

All-time, the Badgers are 6-0-0 vs. Boston University, including two wins in the NCAA tournament, with one of those coming in the 2011 NCAA Championship. In seven meetings vs. Clarkson, Wisconsin is 5-1-1, winning the last three including in the 2022 NCAA Regional Semifinal and 2019 NCAA Women’s Frozen Four.

The 2025 NCAA Women’s Frozen Four is set for Minneapolis on March 21 and 23. 

Last year, Wisconsin lost in the finals to Ohio State, 1-0, after beating the Buckeyes for the championship by the same score the season before.

Wisconsin also won it all in 2021, 2019 and 2009, advancing to the finals three other times since 2008. They won back-to-back golds in 2006-07 for the first two titles in school history.

Wisconsin won its second straight WCHA Final Faceoff title this past Saturday with a 4-3 win over No.4 Minnesota, improving to 35-1-2 on the year.