Will Lena Taylor Change Her Style As Judge?

Lena Taylor speaking at a press conference. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

In a final speech ending her 20-year career in the Legislature, then-Democratic Sen. Lena Taylor insisted four times that she and her Milwaukee constituents were “insulted” by the Republican majority rushing to enact new legislative districts that had not been the subject of either public hearings or even votes by legislative committees.

“This is about our democracy,” Taylor raged. “Let’s give the people transparency. At least have a hearing. At least do right by the people. Do your job and do it right.”

The finger-pointing outrage was vintage Taylor, who joined the 10 other Senate Democrats in voting against Republican-drawn maps that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed.

Days later, Evers appointed Taylor a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge, effective immediately because the judgeship was vacant. Taylor resigned from the Senate seat she held for 19 years.

It was the 55th judicial appointment by Evers, who has named 49 Circuit Court and six Court of Appeals judges since taking office in 2019. Those appointments have included 29 women and 23 minorities.

It was also his 13th appointment of a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge, including 10 minorities – Taylor is Black – and five women.

Britt Cudaback, communications for the governor, said that those numbers are important because, when Evers took office, “Wisconsin had one of the least diverse judiciaries in the nation.”

Taylor, a 57-year-old Milwaukee native, was the second Black woman to be elected a state senator; U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore was the first.

Taylor’s public career had its ups and downs. Although winning re-election to the Senate, she lost two bids for mayor and campaigns for Milwaukee County executive, lieutenant governor and municipal judge. In 2018, she was removed from the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee after getting a municipal citation for directing a racist term at a Wells Fargo bank employee and a state senate human resources investigation found she had bullied her legislative staff.

Can Taylor change her longtime, in-your-face, public persona now that she wears a judge’s robe?

Wisconsin’s code of judicial conduct requires that, “A judge shall be patient, dignified and courteous to litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers and others with whom the judge deals in an official capacity and shall require similar conduct of lawyers, staff, court officials and others subject to the judge’s direction and control.”

Several past and present Democratic legislators declined to comment on Taylor’s Capitol career.

Former Republican Rep. John Nygren, who repeatedly clashed with Taylor when he cochaired the Finance Committee, said Taylor “has her way of being bombastic. It seemed like she wanted to draw attention to herself.”

But, Nygren said of Taylor and other legislators, “What you see when the cameras are rolling, and when reporters have their notebooks out, might not always be a clear representation of who that legislator is.”

Nygren, who represented Marinette County, conceded that he and Taylor “came from such different backgrounds.”

Data from the 2020 Census say that Black residents make up about 60% of Taylor’s 4th Senate District; the state average is 6.6%. Census data also say females with no spouse head about 42% of all households in that district, 57% of those households receive food stamps, and about 53% of those households had income of less than $50,000 in the previous year.

Nygren said he and Taylor once had a 90-minute private talk – “no Rs, no Ds” – in a personal discussion that “stuck with me.”

But, when social media posts began to play a large role in debate on public issues, Nygren said Taylor started using her personal cell phone to videotape her Joint Finance Committee speeches. Nygren said he asked Taylor to stop that practice, and she eventually did.

Nygren said he got most angry at Taylor when she publicly accused he and all Republicans of “not caring” about the opioid abuse crisis. “That got personal,” said Nygren, whose daughter was a heroin addict sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2020 for giving a fatal overdose to a pregnant woman.

Taylor then privately approached Nygren about her claim and they worked it out, Nygren recalled.

Nygren called Taylor’s appointment as a judge a “good opportunity.”

Taylor, who must seek a full six-year term in April 2025, thanked Evers for a chance to “take my life experiences, constant quest for the truth, and unwavering commitment to equity and justice for all to the Circuit Court.”

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com