High court race kicks off with a bang

Spivak and Bice in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the race shaping up for the open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court created by Justice Jon Wilcox's planned retirement.

In one corner, you have Linda Clifford, a Madison lawyer with ties to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, who has already poured $140,000 of her own money into her Supreme Court campaign war chest and collected another $60,000.

Facing her is Washington County Judge Annette Ziegler, a conservative jurist who has little in her campaign account but has access to a lot of cash as a member of the family that launched the investment firm The Ziegler Cos. Inc.

That might not be all.

[John] Yingling, the political insider, said since it will probably be a while before there is another open seat on the court, he wouldn't be surprised to see enough candidates to fill a baseball diamond.