MADISON, Wis. — With one week to go until election day, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford is making a statewide blitz with the hopes of building support for her bid for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Crawford recently sat down one-on-one with Spectrum News 1 Political Anchor Anthony DaBruzzi for a conversation about what is at stake on April 1.
“I've always, throughout my career, looked for opportunities where I could use my experience and my legal skills to help the most people,” Crawford explained. “I realize that that's what it comes down to, and this is an opportunity to take what I’ve been doing as a circuit court judge, you know, in a real case-by-case level, trying to do justice for Wisconsin families and bring that statewide, and be able to apply our laws and our constitution in ways that protect Wisconsinites. And it’s just an opportunity that I could not pass up to try to do that.”
“I’ve had a lot of experience with it, so I have been on the circuit court now for seven and a half years, and you do have to put your positions, your policy beliefs, aside when you're making decisions, and apply the law as it was intended for the purposes it was intended,” Crawford said. “I always make sure in every case that, first of all, I’m getting the facts right, and that's a really important starting point to make sure that you're not being biased, that you're being fully impartial, is just to make sure you understand what the truth is based on the evidence presented in court.”
“Unfortunately, what we're seeing right now is Elon Musk, who has unlimited money, [the] richest man in the world, is pouring millions and millions of dollars into this race for my opponent, Brad Schimel, and spending that on, you know, false attack ads against me. The first of the ads that they were running actually had a different Susan Crawford depicted — a picture of somebody else — so I don't know that they necessarily know anything about me or who they're campaigning against, but Elon Musk is trying to buy himself a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court,” Crawford answered.
“Tesla has a case that is working its way through our state courts to try to overturn a decision by regulators saying that they can't sell directly to consumers with their own dealerships. That's Wisconsin law, and Elon Musk doesn't like it, and I think he's decided that one of the ways that he can throw money at that to try to get that overturned is by buying a justice on the Supreme Court,” she added.
“That's a great question and the first thing I do is to consider who are the parties in that case, what kind of legal issues are raised, maybe look a little bit into what kind of facts they are bringing in to support their claims, and then I review the judicial code,” Crawford said. “There are rules that we follow, and there are certain kinds of cases that present a conflict of interest, where a judge must step aside, where it's mandatory. For example, if a judge has a financial stake in the outcome of a decision, then you have to recuse. I’ve never had that come up, but I would certainly do that if there were such a case.”
“I grew up in Chippewa Falls. I was one of four kids. My dad was an engineer who got his degree with the GI Bill after serving in Korea. My mom's a third-generation Wisconsinite who grew up in Green County. My family got its start there back in the 1860s when my great-grandpa started a barber shop on the square in Monroe, Wisconsin. So, I've got some deep roots in Wisconsin,” Crawford said.
“I grew up with a great family and in a great community where people watched out for each other. I had a little sister who had special needs, who I was always, as her big sister, watching out for and protecting people, and watching out for other people is something that started really young for me. It's just part of my roots and part of my basic values, and a big part of the reason that I'm running this race, and I want voters to know that, that I'm looking out to protect their rights under our laws and under our constitution. And I mean, you know, the rights of every Wisconsinite, not just the Republicans or not just the Democrats or the red or the blue or whatever you want to call it. I really want to be there to do justice for all Wisconsinites.”
Watch the full interview above.
