2 vie for Milwaukee Co. judge seat
It’s not every spring that an open seat on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court is being contested by two defense lawyers, but that doesn’t mean the April 6 election for Branch 3 presents merely two sides of the same coin.
Rather, it could become a barometer of how much a reform movement, seeded with a number of judicial appointments by Gov. Tony Evers, is taking hold, and of whether the past year’s protest marches will translate to votes.
The candidates — Susan Roth and Katie Kegel — are white women in their 30s, Marquette Law graduates, with roughly the same years of experience. But one is more of an insider and one is more vocal about progressives’ criminal justice agenda.
Kegel, 35, a 2011 Marquette law grad, isn’t wellknown around the Milwaukee County courthouse because she’s an assistant public defender in Waukesha County. She lives in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee, is married to Noel Kegel, co-owner of the Wheel & Sprocket bicycle stores, and is involved in several progressive organizations, from Common Ground to the American Constitution Society.
Major labor unions and elected officials like County Executive David Crowley, County Board Chair Marcelia Nicholson, Milwaukee Common Council President Cavalier Johnson, and state Assembly members Deb Andraca, Evan Goyke and Dora Drake back Kegel.
She’s won the endorsement of a few judges, as well, but from Waukesha County, the more conservative jurisdiction where she practices, only from one court commissioner.
Roth, 38, is a partner at Kohn Smith Roth, where she has practiced criminal defense exclusively since joining the firm after graduation from Marquette Law School in 2007.
Roth stresses her local roots, noting she was born in Cudahy and lives in Bay View.
“It’s time we continue to move Milwaukee County’s judicial system forward in a fair, balanced, and impartial manner for everyone who appears before the bench,” her bio page reads.
A switch in races
Kegel announced last spring that she would run against longtime incumbent Judge Clare Fiorenza. “That is rare,” she said. “It demonstrates my commitment to my values, and to answering the call the community has raised to evolve and better the system.”
Later, Roth decided to run for a different branch when Judge Jeffery Conen retired. After Evers appointed Jon Richards to Conen’s seat, Roth switched races to take on Kegel for Branch 3, where, by then, Fiorenza had also announced she would retire.
Most of the courthouse establishment backs Roth, including more than two dozen current and retired circuit judges, District Attorney John Chisholm, Milwaukee’s municipal judges and the Milwaukee Police Association. More than 200 lawyers endorse Roth.
“They know me, they’ve seen me practice,” Roth said at recent forum.
Kegel grew up in Clintonville and entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, but left after a semester and returned home, where she worked in a factory at night and took college classes during the day.
After marrying her high school sweetheart, who was in the military, she moved to South Carolina and graduated from Charleston Southern University. After graduation, she worked in a crisis center for about a year, then taught elementary school reading.
She separated from her first husband, moved to Virginia and taught middle school math, then decided to attend law school and returned to Wisconsin to do it. She met Kegel after she was in practice a few years, and the couple is expecting their first child; she’s been campaigning while six months pregnant.
Kegel sees two main differences between her and Roth. “My life experiences outside the legal profession, and the roles we see as a judge. She promotes the traditional emphasis on being unbiased, not taking a position. I think it’s OK to be an advocate for some causes, in non-partisan ways.”
Both candidates, like all judicial candidates, say they will treat everyone with dignity, look at each case on its own merits and not let any personal views color their decisions.
Kegel also talks about judges being leaders in the community, and that she’s committed to remaining engaged in what people want from the bench, “and ways to achieve those (community) goals without over incarcerating as we historically have done.”
Roth described one problem with the justice system as “the tendency to make assumptions, often because of fatigue of seeing same charges so often,” and said she would address that by relying on a core principle.
“Every decision affects somebody’s life,” Roth said. “You have to be contemplative, keeping in mind the big picture, and then own it,” while keeping a “commitment to seeking justice.”
Neither candidate has much experience beyond criminal defense. Roth said she has represented victims of sex trafficking, domestic violence and has done some work in children in need of protective services cases. Kegel said she interned at Children’s Court with the public defender’s office and clerked at a family law firm.
A recording of a virtual candidates forum held by the Milwaukee Bar Association on March 11 is available at the organization’s website, www.mkebar.org.