Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Justice Ramirez?

A few weeks ago, I weighed a few of the potential candidates to run against Justice Butler as next year.  At that point, Judge Brennan from Milwaukee seemed the be the best candidate.  Well, Brennan has decided not to run.  This has me leaning toward a very qualified candidate: Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Ralph M. Ramirez.

From all appearances, Ramirez would be a great justice.  He has a record of being tough - but fair - on criminals.  His experience as a prosecutor also lends to his toughness on crime.  It’s harder to read his ruling in regards to tort issues, but it seems that he would probably be good on those issues too.

Politically speaking, he’s a fantastic candidate.  It must be noted that Justice Butler is an extremely weak candidate.  He already ran for Supreme Court once and got his clock cleaned.  He was appointed to the bench by Governor Doyle.  Since then, he has voted for and/or authored every anti-business and anti-law enforcement decision from the court.  In reality, he only has two issues to run on: he’s black and he’s the incumbent. 

A Ramirez candidacy takes away the racial politics from Butler.  Although Butler is the first black Justice, Ramirez would be the first Hispanic Justice.  Although I utterly reject the notion that race should be an issue in elections… it is. 

Furthermore, Ramirez would be extremely well financed.  Remember that business groups pumped in millions to support Justice Ziegler because they rightly wanted to preserve the balance of the court.  How much do you think they will spend to tip the balance of the court?  I guarantee you that it’s far more than Butler could hope to muster. 

Ramirez appears to be a good judge and has the potential to be a fantastic justice.  I hope he gets into the race.  He’d stand a very good chance against a weak candidate - especially with the strong backing that he is sure to get. 

Run, Ramirez, run.

(2) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1846 hrs
Law + Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. Where’d you get Brennan’s decided not to run?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 30, 2007 at 1809 hrs


  2. Insiders.

    Posted by Owen on May 30, 2007 at 1826 hrs


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