MILWAUKEE — The three candidates vying to replace Justice David Prosser said Thursday the Supreme Court has become divisive and dysfunctional, claiming new blood was needed to restore the public’s confidence in the body.

But Prosser insisted he wasn’t the source of any divisiveness on the court and instead blamed the perception, in part, on Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson.

Appearing before the Milwaukee Bar Association for the first debate of the campaign, Prosser said when he was appointed to the court in 1998, he was “a little naïve” and defended Abrahamson when four members supported her opponent. But he said Abrahamson’s attitude has changed some since then and “people who were not with her all the time were really treated almost as enemies.”