Chief Justice John Roberts likes to maintain the dubious pretense that there are no “Obama judges or Trump judges” in the federal judiciary, but nobody is pretending that the vote on Tuesday for a justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court is anything but blatantly partisan. That single race is “as important as the presidency,” according to Brian Schimming, the chairman of the state Republican Party, and former Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican, crowed that Republicans were finally spending as much as Democrats on a judicial race.

It’s unfortunate, of course, that any state Supreme Court race should become as openly sectarian as the presidency; the judiciary really is supposed to be above this kind of grubby buck-raking. But that kind of sentiment has now become hopelessly retrograde and naïve, particularly in light of the strenuous effort by both parties to turn this election into an open referendum on the first 70 days of President Trump’s second term. Democratic spending on the race was already staggering, fueled by very real concerns about redistricting and the party’s long-term competitiveness in the state, and Thompson was able to delight in reaching parity only because Elon Musk decided to use his vast wealth to make the race a demonstration of his sway.

Now spending on this single election, which will determine control of the court, is at least $70 million, and may be approaching,66jogo according to one estimate, $100 million; Musk and allied groups have spent more than $20 million. Trump hasn’t shown up to campaign for Brad Schimel, the judge backed by Republicans, so Musk himself has become the unlikely focal point of the Democratic campaign. If Democrats can beat Musk’s money, and make a good showing in one of the two special congressional elections in Florida on Tuesday, it will show that concerted political action really can counter Trump’s assertions of power.

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Musk has certainly provided the Democrats with the caricature of a clueless billionaire they needed to whip up attention and energy. His wrecking-ball approach to damaging essential government programs, including Social Security, had already made him unpopular, and then he came up with a plan to pay people who had voted in the Wisconsin race. He retreated from that idea, which probably violated the state’s bribery laws, but the attempt fit in perfectly with the Democratic attack line that Schimel was for sale. Musk’s cringy decision to appear in a foam cheesehead hat in Green Bay on Sunday night affirmed, if nothing else, that he is impervious to embarrassment.

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