Experience, not politics, at issue in judicial race

Six years ago, the race for judge in Ozaukee County Circuit Court’s Branch II hinged on politics and Joseph Voiland was elected to what would become a tumultuous first and only term.

In next week’s Tuesday, April 2, election, experience and qualifications are the issues as Angela Foy and Steve Cain, who advanced from the four-candidate Feb. 26 primary, vie to succeed Voiland.

Foy out-polled Cain by just 44 votes in the primary.

A lawyer with the Milwaukee law firm Halling & Cayo, Foy, 40, specializes in family law.

Cain, 44, is a lawyer with the Cedarburg law firm Stippich, Selin & Cain who specializes in municipal law and general litigation and was elected Mid-Moraine Municipal Court judge in 2009.

Both candidates are Cedarburg residents.

Foy has focused her campaign on her courtroom experience.

“I can’t tell you how many hearings I’ve done,” she said. “I’m in court a lot, and it’s circuit court as opposed to municipal court.”

Her experience, Foy said, has taught her what makes a good judge.

“A good judge is one who is willing to work hard and be prepared,” she said. “A good judge has the patience to listen to everybody, then be willing to make difficult decisions and explain those decisions.”

Cain said he is uniquely qualified to be a circuit court judge by virtue of the fact he is both a lawyer with a broad range of experience and a judge in one of the largest municipal courts in the state.

He noted that he cut his teeth as a lawyer working for the Grafton law firm Houseman & Feind at a time when young attorneys didn’t typically specialize in a particular area of law.

“You were expected to be a lawyer in the sense you should be exposed to all types of cases and serve the legal community,” he said. 

He rounded out his experience by working as a municipal prosecutor and currently does a significant amount of trial work.

But it’s the decade he has spent as a municipal court judge that in particular has prepared him for the circuit court bench, Cain said.

“Being a judge is about being a listener, being able to dissect facts and determine the credibility of witnesses,” he said. “Many issues we deal with in municipal court are effectively the same as those in circuit court.”

In addition to experience, Foy said, she would bring “conservative judgment” to the bench.

“I recognize that people will read into conservative in many ways,” she said. “To me, it means a very reasoned, step-by-step approach, not overreaching and erring on the side of caution.”

Cain bristled at the use of the term conservative in a nonpartisan judicial election.

“I don’t think it (the term conservative) tells you anything,” he said. “People use these terms for their own benefit to spin a narrative that may or may not be true.

“Voters need to look deeper than a tag line on a flyer.”

Borrowing from the philosophy of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Cain said judges should be servants of the law.

“You need to be humble,” he said. “Judges are not always going to love the decisions they make, but you have to honor and respect what the Legislature does. Courts, at times, interfere with the Legislature’s role, and that’s not a court’s job.

“That’s a judicial philosophy that should appeal to people of all political stripes.”

Among the challenges facing judges is dealing with young people convicted of serious crimes.

Referring to the age at which people can be tried as adults in Wisconsin, Cain said, “I tell people 17 is a bigger birthday than 18 or 21 because of the ramifications for a 17-year-old who does something impulsive that could have far-reaching consequences.”

For non-violent offenses, a judge’s authority to expunge, or essentially erase, the record of a crime can be a useful alternative to saddling a young person with a criminal record that will haunt them for life, Cain said. 

“I think we are realizing that there are better ways to deal with young offenders,” he said. “Destroying a person’s employability doesn’t do anything to benefit society.

“The challenge is determining the right candidates for expungement while keeping public safety in mind.”

Foy said she would consider expunging crimes only in rare circumstances.

“If there’s a way to put somebody on a different path in life, great, but the safety of the community is my priority,” she said.

Noting that drug and alcohol addiction, as well as mental illness, are factors in many of the crimes committed in Ozaukee County, both candidates said judges need to be a part of the effort to address these problems, both inside and outside of the courtrooms.

“If the underlying issue (in a crime) is substance addiction or mental health issues, those have to be treated,” Foy said. “I don’t know that the best treatment is found in jail, although there has to be consequences for actions.”

Cain agreed that treatment needs to be a component of sentences in cases where it’s warranted and said that one of the ways to address the underlying issues of criminal behavior related to addiction is with the creation of a drug treatment court.

“Ozaukee County is maybe a rarity in not having a specific drug court to address issues related to addiction,” he said. “From my work on the (county’s) Criminal Justice Collaborating Council, it’s apparent that we need to explore that.”

While experience is an issue in the election, Foy said, so too is the fact she registered as a candidate before Voiland announced he would not seek re-election. She did so, she said, because of her commitment to unseating a judge whose first term in office was surrounded by controversy.

In the 2013 election, Voiland upset veteran Judge Tom Wolfgram with a campaign that focused on Wolfgram’s decision to sign the Gov. Scott Walker recall petition.

Then in 2016, Voiland sparked a 16-month criminal investigation of the Ozaukee County Court System with accusations that fellow court officials had committed criminal misconduct in office in an effort to undermine him. That investigation ended abruptly without reaching any conclusions, but an administrative probe conducted by the state court system that followed found no basis for those accusations.

Referring to Cain, Foy said, “The timing and the reasons we each got in the race are very different. 

“I entered the race because I believe change is needed. We need a fresh start. He (Cain) didn’t become a candidate until Judge Voiland announced he wasn’t running.”

Voiland announced he was not running for re-election and endorsed Cain on Dec. 26, a day before Cain announced his candidacy.

“I view it as Judge Voiland trying to pass the baton to him (Cain),” Foy said.

Cain shot back, “Her suggestion that some baton is being passed to me disregards the overwhelming support I have from defense lawyers, prosecutors, judges and community leaders who support me for my record as a judge and my broad experience as a lawyer.

“And her comment further suggests I have some sort of relationship with Judge Voiland. I do not.

“Her suggestion that this race has anything to do with Judge Voiland when he’s stepping down tells me she wants to use that issue as a distraction from the real issues, which are experience and trust.”