State Attorney General Brad Schimel won’t seek recount in loss to Josh Kaul.

Incumbent concedes to Kaul in election decided by less than 1 percentage point

MADISON – Attorney General Brad Schimel said Monday he would not seek a recount in his unsuccessful bid for a second term — officially handing a victory to former federal prosecutor Josh Kaul.

Fewer than 18,000 votes — or less than a percentage point — separate Schimel and Kaul, but Schimel said that gap is wide enough that he felt comfortable conceding the race.

“Throughout my career in public service, I have tried to keep the focus of my work on the results, and not myself,” Schimel said in a statement. “I care very deeply about the criminal justice system and hope to find a way to continue the pursuit of justice in the future.”

Schimel had been waiting to decide whether to seek a recount until state elections officials completed their final vote tally, which ended Friday.

He said he could have raised money to pay for the recount, but “we felt the odds of finding enough votes were too narrow to justify putting the county clerks, their staff and the public through such an ordeal at this time.”

“The people of Wisconsin are good, God is great, and I accept the verdict of the electorate. It has been an honor and privilege to serve as Wisconsin’s attorney general,” he said.

Kaul in a statement thanked Schimel for his public service.

“As your AG, I will be an advocate for all Wisconsinites,” Kaul said.

Kaul is one of six Democrats to win a statewide office in the Nov. 6 election and will be the first Democrat to hold the office of attorney general in 12 years.

He follows his mother Peg Lautenschlager, also a Democrat, who was elected to the post in 2002 and served until January 2007.

Kaul said Sunday on WKOW’s “Capital City Sunday” he would seek measures within the state Department of Justice to prevent a future “backlog” of testing evidence related to sexual assaults — an issue that plagued Schimel throughout the campaign.

Kaul during the race criticized Schimel over the pace at which evidence was tested, but Schimel defended his effort to analyze the untested evidence — noting he was the first attorney general to do so.

Kaul on Sunday also again said he would “start responding to our opioid epidemic like the crisis it is,” including leveling harsher penalties on pharmaceutical companies, and said he would work with Gov.-elect Tony Evers to withdraw Wisconsin from a lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act.