Political ties raise interest in state Appeals Court race
Candidates stress qualifications are what's important
Waukesha - For the first time in 26 years, voters in the 12 southeastern Wisconsin counties served by the District 2 Court of Appeals will get a choice in who sits on the bench that bridges county circuit courts and the state's highest court.
The two candidates running for the seat, vacated by Judge Neal Nettesheim at the end of last year, promise they would uphold the court's position as an "error corrector" by exercising restraint in following the law.
"My judicial philosophy is pretty straightforward," said Lisa S. Neubauer, who was appointed to the court in January by Gov. Jim Doyle to serve out the six-year term that ends July 31. "My job is to follow the law. My job is to apply the law and not make it."
Her opponent in the race, attorney William Gleisner, said the role of an appellate judge is to review decisions in circuit court and make a correction if the trial court, attorneys or litigants have somehow strayed or something has been overlooked.
"I don't see a Court of Appeals judge as being a glorified trial court judge, nor do I see them as being some sort of subaltern Supreme Court justice," he said. "They are there to review what happened in the trial court, like the booth upstairs reviews a football game."
Both candidates cited their background to support their candidacies.
Gleisner said he has been involved in at least 200 legal appeals to the state Supreme Court or other appeals courts around the nation. A graduate of Marquette University Law School, he was named "trial lawyer of the year" in 2005 by the Wisconsin Association for Justice and said his computer background has made him active in advocating for more electronic filings in Wisconsin courts.
Neubauer was a clerk to Chief U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb and received her law degree from the University of Chicago. She served for 19 years in the litigation department at Foley & Lardner, where she was a partner, specializing in environmental cleanup cases for corporate clients and performing pro bono work for disadvantaged clients.
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http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=728790
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