Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg says she misspoke when she told a youth group recently that President Abraham Lincoln had slaves.



Kloppenburg's comment about Lincoln came during an appearance with her opponent, Justice Rebecca Bradley, before the West Allis Youth Commission last month.



Kloppenburg told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday that she was trying to make a point that everyone, even the most admired leaders, have flaws and that Lincoln had slaves, yet signed the Emancipation Proclamation. She said she might have been confusing the fact that Lincoln's wife's family had slaves in Kentucky.



"I don't remember what I was thinking when I said it," Kloppenburg said during a meeting with reporters and editors of the Journal Sentinel.



Kloppenburg and Bradley face off in the April 5 election for a 10-year term on the Supreme Court.



Associated Press