“Voters head to the polls on Tuesday to choose which two jurists will compete to join the Wisconsin Supreme Court — a race unmatched in its consequence to policy in this battleground state, where conservatives and liberals are expected to raise and spend levels of cash not seen before in a judicial race,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

“Conservatives are defending their 4-3 majority on the court as Wisconsin Democrats seek to flip control of the court to liberal justices for the first time in more than a decade. The race comes in a year when the issue of abortion is top of mind after a dormant 19th century law banning the practice in nearly every situation has resurfaced following last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.”

Politico: “At one point, Judge Everett Mitchell was a functionally illiterate teen running from trouble at home. Now he’s running for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in one of the nation’s most consequential elections — with major implications for 2024.”

With the election less than three weeks away, three out of five voters disapprove of the job Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) has done in her first term and 71% think the city is on the wrong track, according to a Sun-Times/WBEZ/Telemundo Chicago/NBC5 poll of Chicago voters.

“Democrats won control of the Pennsylvania House in special elections Tuesday, wresting partial power from Republicans for the first time in a dozen years in the competitive swing state,” the AP reports.

“Democrats won all three vacant Pittsburgh-area House seats to claim a slim edge over Republicans, finally securing a majority they first appeared to have won in last November’s General Election. Republicans still hold the Senate, creating a political division that could make it difficult for lawmakers to send priority bills to new Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro.”

“The special elections capped several months of electoral drama.”

Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry (D) told Axios that she’s considering running for the office again.

Barry resigned from office in 2018 following the revelation that she had an affair with the head of her police security detail.

Politico: “Donald Trump acolytes galvanized by the former president’s false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen from him piled into last year’s campaigns for state election officer positions. And although Democrats and mainstream Republicans defeated all of those candidates in key battleground states like Michigan, Arizona and elsewhere, far more races for local election positions there and in other states will be up for grabs next year.”

“The slate of below-the-radar campaigns will test how much money and attention will be available for these critical roles in the midst of a presidential race.”

Charlie Cook: “The concept of ‘off years’ once meant relative political tranquility, save the occasional special congressional election and the regular off-year state elections in Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia.”

“The new reality is that for the two major parties, odd-numbered years are about candidates, while even-numbered years are about campaigns. The year before an election, there is no greater task than convincing incumbents, at least those who are not extremely old or scandal-damaged, to seek reelection, while simultaneously encouraging the best possible candidates run in open and toss-up races and keeping the weakest candidates out.”

“Anyone who believes that national party leaders and operatives should take a hands-off approach to who runs where obviously does not appreciate what happened to Republicans in 2022.”

New York Times: “In 10 weeks, Wisconsin will hold an election that carries bigger policy stakes than any other contest in America in 2023.”

“The April race, for a seat on the state’s evenly divided Supreme Court, will determine the fate of abortion rights, gerrymandered legislative maps and the Wisconsin governor’s appointment powers — and perhaps even influence the state’s 2024 presidential election…”

“The contest will almost certainly shatter spending records for a judicial election in any state, and could even double the current most expensive race. Wisconsinites are set to be inundated by a barrage of advertising, turning a typically sleepy spring election into the latest marker in the state’s nonstop political season. The seat is nonpartisan in name only, with officials from both parties lining up behind chosen candidates.”

“Indeed, the clash for the court is striking because of how nakedly political it is.”

Daily Beast: “Republicans are clamoring to find a candidate with an immaculate, bulletproof résumé who can patch up the Long Island GOP’s scarred reputation. Democrats are looking for someone who can lead their comeback—an emboldened move to flip the district back to blue after Santos dyed it red.”

“The timing is complicated. Santos could resign any day now. And if he did, it’d spark a special election, where party leaders would pick their own candidates. Santos has remained adamant he won’t resign unless all 142,673 voters who voted for him call on him to do so—a purposefully impossible goalpost to track.”

Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Virginia Democrats appeared to flip a key state Senate seat in Virginia Beach on Tuesday night, expanding their edge in the chamber to 22-18 and making passage of new abortion curbs less likely in the session that starts Wednesday.”

“Gov. Andy Beshear’s hotly contested re-election in Kentucky is one of three red-state governor’s races this year, but the only one with a Democratic incumbent,” Axios reports.

“Democrats say they have a playbook that’s perfect for this moment, after helping Gov. Laura Kelly win in deep-red Kansas for a second time last year. But they concede that abortion might not be the X factor that it was last cycle.”

Democrats’ unexpected strength in the 2022 midterms extended to state legislatures, where they picked up seats in 21 states and took control of five chambers from the GOP, Axios reports.