MADISON, Wis. -- Some said they are troubled by the millions of dollars spent by special interests in the Supreme Court race and are calling for changes.

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Third-party TV ads were a centerpiece of one of the most negative Supreme Court races in state history, culminating in a historical result.

Challenger Michael Gableman defeated incumbent Justice Louis Butler to win a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Tuesday's election. The results mean that a sitting Supreme Court justice won't return to the bench for the first time in 40 years.

The interest in the race by special interests is troubling to some, including the unseated justice, WISC-TV reported.

"I've said it throughout this race, the system is broken. Third-party issue groups who don't have to be held accountable, don't have to follow campaign finance laws, don't have to disclose donors, siphon huge amounts of money into this race," Butler said.

One political scientist said that it's not just the ads that are to blame. University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Ken Goldstein said that the process of electing judges might be the problem.

"People do not know the candidates very well, do not know the records of the candidates very well, and there are no pardon cues for people to latch on to," Goldstein said. "So, in an incredible low turnout race, where people don't have much information to go on, ads, contrary to what I say a lot, have the potential to be quite misleading in a judicial election."

But the interests that got involved said they knew what was at stake.

"We saw a majority on the court taking that activist approach on important cases, both in the area of civil litigation, which is probably more the concern of business, striking down duly enacted laws of the Legislature like the caps of medical malpractice awards, for example," said James Bucher, with Wisconsin Manufacturer's and Commerce.

"There are people out there who want to see Wisconsin have a progressive judiciary. There are people out there who want to see Wisconsin have a pro-corporate judiciary, and they all got involved and added their voices," said Scot Ross, executive director of One Wisconsin Now.

The seven current justices signed on to a letter supporting public financing of Supreme Court campaigns.

The state Senate passed a measure earlier this year to that effect, but it didn't advance in the Assembly. The legislative session is over for this year, but some are expected to make this an issue for next session.