Former Democrat legislator Chris Taylor, who was labeled a “whackjob” by a former colleague in the state Legislature, insists that she does NOT regret her two votes AGAINST landmark victims’ rights legislation, which is called Marsy’s Law.
She responded with an emphatic no when asked that question by a moderator during the only state Supreme Court debate on April 2. Taylor, who left the Legislature when Gov. Tony Evers named her a judge, will face Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar on April 7. The election is to replace a retiring conservative justice; it won’t shift the ideological control of the court either way, although Lazar’s election would retain some balance.
“It is a good strong law,” Lazar, a former prosecutor and Waukesha County Judge, responded, referring to Marsy’s Law.
Taylor, a former Democrat legislator who was known as the Legislature’s most liberal member when she was there, claimed during the debate that she’s no longer a Democrat. Lazar said Taylor recently listed being a Democrat on a form. Taylor’s campaign has been heavily funded by the Wisconsin Democrat Party, state records show. “My opponent is a Democrat. She said as recently as March of this year that she is still a Democrat,” Lazar said, adding that Taylor has taken “almost 3/4th of a million dollars from the Democrat Party and won’t say whether she would recuse” in cases brought by the Democrat Party.
Duey Stroebel, a former state senator, has called Taylor a “whackjob” who was the “most obnoxious liberal bomb thrower I encountered during all my years in state office.”
The only debate, which was held on WISN-TV, was initially postponed due to Taylor saying she had a bout of kidney stones.
Taylor is trying to claim that she’s not an activist. At one point, she dramatically accused Lazar of “celebrating” that there are women all over this country who are victims of rape and incest, not being able to get abortions.
Watch the debate in full here:
Taylor also said “no,” she would not recuse herself from cases filed by Planned Parenthood despite working as their policy director in the past.
On abortion, Lazar said that Taylor, as a legislator, pushed a bill that would have allowed abortion at any stage of pregnancy. Taylor said she would have voted to overturn the 1849 abortion law.
“Judge Maria Lazar stayed focused on the law, but Chris Taylor clearly wants to use the bench to force through the same failed, out-of-touch legislative agenda she couldn’t pass in the assembly. This debate made it clear that Judge Maria Lazar is the only candidate who will be a fair jurist rather than a political activist,” Lazar’s campaign wrote after the debate.
Taylor challenged Lazar on the 2020 election during the debate, but Lazar flatly stated that she believes Joe Biden won.
“What I do in the ballot box is nobody’s business,” Taylor said, when asked about whether she would overturn Voter ID.
Taylor said she wants to be a justice to “hold the federal government accountable.”
Lazar called herself an “independent judge and justice.” She said that Taylor is an “activist, which should disqualify her.” Taylor claimed she has never said she’s an activist.”
Lazar responded that Taylor would be a judicial activist who would “follow her causes and agenda and put those above everything else.”
Taylor accused Lazar of “taking away our rights,” but Lazar said she spent her career “protecting the rights of the people in the state.”
