She said she was devastated after losing a 2015 case involving a brother and sister in foster care, one in which she remembers a Dane County judge telling her “the law did not matter” and separated the children.
“I decided then and there that I could do so much better,” Lazar said. “And I decided to run for circuit court in my home county of Waukesha.”
Lazar, 62, now a judge on the Waukesha-based District 2 Court of Appeals, is the conservative candidate in this year’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race. She is running on a platform of returning “fairness, independence, and integrity to the bench.”
State Supreme Court races are officially nonpartisan, but in recent years have become bitterly polarized. And it’s hard to imagine two candidates who are more polar opposites than Lazar and her opponent, Democratic-backed state Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor. The state’s highest court is currently controlled 4-3 by liberals after years of conservative majorities.
Friends, former coworkers and supporters describe Lazar as hardworking, diligent and thoughtful. But Lazar’s opposition to abortion, her past work at the Wisconsin Department of Justice under Republican leadership, and some of her decisions as a judge have drawn criticism from liberals.
The election is April 7, and early voting started March 24. The winner is elected to a 10-year term.
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