One contested judicial race in Milwaukee

No incumbent Milwaukee County circuit judges will face a challenge in the April election, unless a late candidate registers by 5 p.m., but two newcomers to circuit judicial politics will face off for an empty seat.

Judge John Seifert decided not to seek re-election to Branch 47 and so the seat will be contested by Kashoua Yang and Scott Wales.  Yang is a sole practitioner who came to the U.S. as a child. Wales also has a private practice and serves as Fox Point municipal judge.

Another open seat drew only a single candidate, former judge Michelle Havas.  She will be on the ballot to succeed Judge Timothy Dugan, who was appointed to the Court of Appeals in October by Gov. Scott Walker.

Walker had appointed Havas to the Milwaukee County circuit court in 2015 but she was defeated in last year's spring election by challenger Jean Kies.  Walker decided not to appoint anyone to fill the remainder of Dugan's circuit court term.  Havas announced her candidacy immediately upon Dugan's appellate appointment.

Incumbent judges who will appear on the April 4 ballot without opposition include Michael Hanrahan, Cynthia Davis, Jeff Kremers, Frederick Rosa, Mary Triggiano, Pedro Colón, Paul Van Grunsven, Carl Ashley, Dennis Cimpl and Chief Judge Maxine White.

Though Havas and another recent Walker appointee, Paul Rifelj, lost elections to keep their seats, Walker's two 2016 appointments did not draw challengers. Hanrahan, a graduate of Harvard and the University of Wisconsin law school, was a 15-year partner at Fox, O'Neill & Shannon.

Davis was working as an assistant district attorney after four years at Foley & Lardner and two years clerking for Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser. She is a graduate of DePauw University and Marquette Law School.

The stakes are higher on the Supreme Court, where Justice Annette Ziegler also appears likely to win a 10-year term without opposition.