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 County results Butler: 50–60% 60–70% 70–90% Gableman: 50–60% 60–70% 70–90% Tie: ~50% | |||||||||||||
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The 2008 Wisconsin Supreme Court election was held on Tuesday, April 1, 2008, to elect a justice to the Wisconsin Supreme Court for a ten-year term. Burnett County circuit judge Michael Gableman narrowly defeated incumbent justice Louis B. Butler, shifting the ideology of the court toward conservatives.
The incumbent justice, Butler, had been appointed by Governor Jim Doyle in August 2004, and was running for his first full term. He was also the first (and so far only) African American justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
This race is considered a turning point in the modern politicization of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Candidates and outside interest groups spent about $6 million on the race, which was at that time the most expensive judicial election in state history.
Gableman won the election by 22,303 votes, carrying 51.19% of the electorate. Butler was the first incumbent justice to lose election since 1967.[1]
- ^ Hansen, Susan A. (April 8, 2008). "Re- Louis Butler's Defeat". Milwaukee Magazine. Retrieved May 16, 2024.