Conservatives: Wisconsin Court Race Is A Buyer Beware Election

There’s an old saying in Texas, any part of cowboy land, really. All hat and no cattle. It means someone is a lot of talk but little action, making claims he can’t back up. 

That’s how some in Wisconsin feel about Theresa Beck. The Jefferson County judge, appointed by one of the most far-left governors in the country, is running for her first full term on the bench as “an experienced judicial conservative,” according to her campaign website.  

That’s a laugh, say those who know in this conservative rural county sandwiched between Madison and Milwaukee, those familiar with Beck’s legal thoughts on key issues like abortion. Those who know the company she keeps. Recently, the incumbent for Jefferson County Circuit Court-Branch 2 sought to remove an opponent from next month’s primary ballot. Beck was represented by one of the nation’s more notorious leftist lawfare firms in that pursuit. 

“You can’t always trust what a candidate is saying. You have to look at their record,” Wisconsin Court of Appeals- 2nd Judicial District Judge Shelly Grogan told The Federalist in a recent interview. Grogan, a widely respected conservative jurist with more than 20 years of court experience, said check the record.  

“All you need to do is look at her [judicial application] to see that she is not the conservative that she is claiming to be,” the judge said. 

Fair enough. Let’s take a look.  

‘Settled Law’ Roe Proponent 

Gov. Tony Evers praised Beck for her “breadth of experience and her strong roots in the community” when he appointed her to the bench last July. The Democrat cited Beck’s 14-year tenure as a prosecutor with the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office and her previous work in private practice. 

What the leftist governor didn’t note in his press release was how Beck’s loathing of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, appears to comport with his own record as a breathless defender of abortion on demand. Evers has often declared that limiting abortion is depriving women of “access to healthcare.” His appointee appears to feel the same way. 

“The United States Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade after 49 years of well settled law impacted the citizens of Wisconsin by removing a conduit to reproductive care,” Beck wrote in her judicial application to the governor. “The removal of the protections of Roe has impacted the reproductive rights of our citizens today in a negative manner.”

Following the ruling, Wisconsin reverted back to a law from the beginning of statehood that barred the killing of unborn babies in most cases. In late 2023, a lower court judge in Madison blocked enforcement of the 1849 law, dubiously determining that the law doesn’t ban abortions. The matter is now before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which, as of 2023, is controlled 4-3 by liberal justices with an affinity for abortion clinics. 

Beck, the self-proclaimed “judicial conservative” is concerned that keeping the wider restrictions on unborn baby murder will force individuals who need “medical care” to seek “these services outside the State.” 

“They face potential barriers of locating a physician or clinic to perform the services, increased costs, and the inability to utilize insurance coverage,” she wrote. “Until there is some legal resolution to this issue, or the law is revisited, medical professionals will be hampered from providing care for patients, and it may discourage doctors from continuing the practice of medicine in Wisconsin, leaving fewer options for patients.”

Does Beck believe in any limitations on abortion? If so, when? The judge did not return The Federalist’s requests for comment. 

Mentors and Friends

Beck’s beau ideal of a judge is the late Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson, according to her application. It’s hard to imagine a more strident leftist in Wisconsin judicial history than Abrahamson. In April 2011, just as the longtime chief justice and her fellow liberals were about to go to open war with then-new Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his conservative government reforms, Brian Bolduc of National Review rightly described Abrahamson as “an activist judge par excellence.” 

“Over the years, Abrahamson scored points for the Left, opposing school choice and citing foreign law to achieve her purposes. For her reliable jurisprudence, liberal activists rewarded her handsomely. The list of her campaign donors reads like the Democratic Party’s roll call: The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; Services Employee International Union; Planned Parenthood; the American Federation of Teachers,” Bolduc wrote. He hadn’t seen nothing yet. Lionized by the left and praised by the jurisprudence community at large, most of the glowing eulogies omitted key details of her lengthy legal career, like how partisanly bitter she could be and how she coveted the power and position of chief justice. 

Beck boasts several endorsements in her campaign for the Jefferson County bench. At the top, the candidate includes retired Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Randy Koschnick, a conservative who was unceremoniously sacked as state director of courts by the state Supreme Court’s liberal majority — a day after they took control. Beck, meanwhile, endorsed and gave campaign contributions to former Jefferson County District Attorney Susan Happ, a leftist who in 2014 ran unsuccessfully against then-state Attorney General Brad Schimel, a Republican. Schimel is now running for Wisconsin Supreme Court. Happ, who left the DA’s office in 2020 to take a post in Evers’ Department of Justice, appears to be returning the favor. She’s listed as treasurer of the Committee to Elect Theresa Beck for Judge. 

‘Cheap Political Games’

The incumbent has some competition. She’s facing off against Jennifer Weber, a Jefferson County attorney who has on multiple occasions unsuccessfully campaigned or applied for a seat on the bench, and attorney Cortney Iverson, and wife of Republican Party of Wisconsin executive director Andrew Iverson. The candidates will face off in the Feb. 18 primary, with the top two finishers competing on the April 1 spring ballot.

But just days in, this rural county circuit court race has already gotten nasty. Iverson’s opponents filed complaints with the Wisconsin Elections Commission challenging the attorney’s eligibility. They argued that Iverson will not have the requisite five years of being a licensed attorney before the election, but Iverson said she will by the time she begins her term — should she win. 

Iverson’s affidavit says she will have been licensed to practice law in Wisconsin for five years on May 27, 2025, before “she assumes the judicial office on August 1, 2025,” in accordance with state law, according to complaint documents. Nuh-uh, Beck and Weber argue. Check the state constitution, which states, “to be eligible for the office of supreme court justice or judge, a person must be an attorney licensed to practice in Wisconsin for the 5 years immediately prior to their election or appointment.”

The Wisconsin Elections Commission staff sided with the complainants, asserting that their claims are valid. But the commission voted 4-2 to allow Iverson to remain on the ballot, with Democrat-appointed member Mark Thomsen joining WEC’s three Republicans. Let the voters decide who’s qualified to serve on the Jefferson County bench, he said. 

“It’s undisputed Iverson would be qualified at the point she would be sworn in,” he said at a special meeting this week. “I think we should promote people to get on the ballot, I think we should have elections, we should have competition, we should let the people be heard. I think she should be on the ballot.” 

Conservatives in Jefferson County — a county that preferred Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump by 16 percentage points over Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris — voiced their displeasure with the “judicial conservative’s” challenge. 

“It is concerning that a sitting judge and court commissioner attempted to undermine the democratic process and remove a qualified candidate from the ballot. Jefferson County will not be fooled by these cheap political games,” Jefferson County Republican Party Chairman Brian Norby, told Wisconsin Right Now. 

Perhaps just as concerning is who represented Beck in the challenge. It was none other than Madison-based Stafford and Rosenbaum, whose partners, Jeff Mandell and Doug Poland, run leftist lawfare practitioner Law Forward. The lawsuit attack dog “was founded in 2020 by lawyers who have worked for Democratic interests in Wisconsin for many years,” charity and activist tracker InfluenceWatch reports. As The Federalist has reported, Law Forward bills itself as a protector of democracy, committed to “fair, transparent, and representative government; where Wisconsinites can participate in free, fair elections where their vote counts.” But the leftist law group’s record shows a commitment to Democratic Party causes, including its lead role in a phony lawsuit against Wisconsin’s alternate electors for President Donald Trump in 2020. 

Grogan, the Wisconsin appellate court judge, has endorsed Iverson in the race. She said she’s seen over the last decade or so a lot of conservative pretenders running for the judiciary.

“What we’re seeing is these candidates from all appearances are liberal Democrats who are calling themselves ‘judicial conservatives’, and that’s just not true,” Grogan said, adding that a judicial conservative supports the rule of law and supports the Constitution. Liberal activist judges disguised as conservatives, she said, are deciding cases based on political preferences or through a political lens. 

“It’s a problem because the people deserve to know who they’re voting for,” Grogan said. 

In other words, they want to know if a candidate is the real deal or all hat and no cattle. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.