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The choose who oversaw the trial of a person convicted of killing six folks when he drove his SUV by a Christmas parade final yr says nationwide publicity and encouragement she obtained for her dealing with of the case will not be why she is working for a pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom seat.

However Dan Kelly, considered one of her challengers and a fellow conservative, mentioned Thursday that the case is the one purpose Waukesha County Circuit Choose Jennifer Dorow obtained within the race.

“I’m struggling to think about every other purpose that she would imagine she could be a certified candidate for the Supreme Courtroom,” Kelly mentioned.

This marks the primary time since Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom races grew to become extremely partisan that a couple of conservative is working. Dorow and Kelly are the 2 conservative candidates.

Two liberal candidates, Milwaukee County Circuit Choose Janet Protasiewicz and Dane County Circuit Choose Everett Mitchell, are additionally vying for the open seat. Voters will slim the sphere to 2 candidate within the Feb. 21 main with the winner elected April 4.

The winner will decide whether or not conservatives keep their majority on the Supreme Courtroom or liberals take management headed into the 2024 presidential election. The deeply partisan courtroom has had the ultimate say on upholding a number of Republican priorities for the previous decade-plus, together with closely gerrymandered legislative maps and a regulation successfully ending collective bargaining rights for public employees.

Dorow was flooded with fan mail and presents for the way she handled the oftentimes unruly defendant, Darrell Brooks, who represented himself in the course of the livestreamed trial. The jury convicted Brooks and Dorow sentenced him to life in jail with no probability for launch.

Dorow, in an interview with The Related Press on Thursday, mentioned she needed to weigh many components when deciding whether or not to run, together with whether or not she might mount a winnable marketing campaign.

“Little doubt the publicity helps with that,” she mentioned in reference to the Brooks trial. “However I’m not working for Supreme Courtroom due to the Brooks case. I’m working as a result of I imagine I’m the perfect candidate to do the job.”

Nonetheless, she mentioned the Brooks case gave voters “a singular alternative to see me in motion, and I feel that could be a snapshot in time of what I’m able to doing and what I’ll do going ahead.”

However Kelly, who has been within the race since September, mentioned usually candidates for the courtroom have a “monitor document of a scholastic and a severe method to the regulation” that may be examined.

“She doesn’t have any of that,” Kelly mentioned. “She has the Brooks trial. I don’t know of anything she brings to the desk apart from the Brooks trial.”

Dorow, in an e mail to AP despatched in response to Kelly’s feedback, mentioned, “I’ll gladly examine my background and credentials to any of the candidates, together with Dan, who was by no means a trial choose and by no means a prosecutor.”

Democrats went even farther in criticizing Dorow, with state celebration government director Devin Remiker accusing Dorow of making an attempt to “capitalize on a tragedy.”

“We hope that all through the marketing campaign, she refrains from commenting any additional in regards to the Brooks trial so she doesn’t put the result in jeopardy,” he mentioned.

Dorow launched her run for Supreme Courtroom on Wednesday, precisely two weeks after sentencing Brooks and almost three months after Kelly obtained in. That is her first statewide race.

Each Dorow, 52, and Kelly, 58, have been appointed to the bench by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker. He appointed Dorow as a Waukesha County circuit choose in 2011 and Kelly to the state Supreme Courtroom in 2016. Dorow gained election unopposed twice within the GOP stronghold of Waukesha County, a Milwaukee suburb, whereas Kelly misplaced within the 2020 election in his run for a full 10-year time period on the bench.

Dorow mentioned her 11 years of judicial expertise is a vital asset she would carry to the courtroom, along with her previous personal follow expertise as a prison protection lawyer and prosecutor. Kelly had not served as a choose earlier than Walker appointed him to the Supreme Courtroom. Each of the liberal candidates are judges.

Kelly argued that conservatives know what they’re getting with him given his years spent on the Supreme Courtroom, however they don’t with Dorow.

“I don’t assume they’re in a temper to gamble with who would the following Supreme Courtroom justice goes to be,” Kelly mentioned.