The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time 21-TIME! Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
Today is April 8, 2026, and that means we just wrapped up the Spring Election here in Wisconsin. There’s a whole lot to recombobulate on as we dig through the results from races across the state, but the big headline is from the statewide race for Wisconsin Supreme Court, where Chris Taylor delivered a resounding landslide victory over Maria Lazar, winning by an astonishing 20-point margin. Not only does this mean a 10-year term on the state’s highest court for Taylor, but it means the court will remain in liberal control through at least 2030.
ICYMI, here’s my column on Taylor’s astonishing victory:
There will be much more to dissect and analyze with this race and others across the state in the Wisconsin Spring Election — our usual “10 Takeaways” deep dive is coming soon — but first, we wanted to talk a bit more about this enormously important Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
To do that, we were joined by someone who knows these state Supreme Court campaigns well — Sachin Chheda, who has led or co-led six campaigns for Wisconsin Supreme Court, including three races to help win this majority, with Justice Rebecca Dallet in 2018, Justice Jill Karofsky in 2020, and Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023.
We talked about the big picture for these Wisconsin Supreme Court races, why candidates matter, how political realignment is driving some of these shifts, and how the template for success in these campaigns was set with Justice Dallet in 2018, which began the liberal winning streak, where five of the last six state Supreme Court races have been won by the Democratic-aligned candidate.
PLUS: A couple reminders:
On Saturday, April 11, Dan Shafer will be joining “Laughing Liberally Milwaukee” at their monthly political comedy show at Comedy Sportz. The show starts at 8 p.m., and features comics Raegan Niemela, Chloe Mikala, Diego Avila, Alecia Altstaetter, and sketch comedy troupe The Accountants Of Homeland Security. Details here and tickets here.
We are less than a week away from our LIVE PODCAST on Milwaukee Day, April 14! The event will be held at Anodyne Coffee’s Walker’s Point Roastery, beginning at 5:30 p.m. It’s free to attend, families are welcome, and the podcast will feature Angela Lang of BLOC, Matt Wild of Milwaukee Record, and several special guests. Find out all about it here, and RSVP to attend on Facebook here.
Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. In 2024, he and the publication joined Civic Media, where he is currently a Contributing Editor. He’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s won 24 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer, at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social, and on Threads at @danshafer.
