Short Wisconsin politics post to follow if you are at all interested.
Tuesday we had an election and it was supercharged. The main draw on the ticket was the race here for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. Justice Prosser, the incumbent was up against Joanne Kloppenburg, a little known attorney. If there was a normal political climate, Prosser would have breezed to another ten year term. The turnout was approximately thirty percent, almost unheard of in an April election.
This race, which was supposedly non partisan, was absolutely brutal. Both candidates were clearly unprepared to run the normal smear and bash campaign that is expected in todays electoral climate. Kloppenburg benefitted from the unions pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars (millions?) into the race, where Prosser benefitted from the other side. Both candidates decided early on to cap their campaigns with public financing limits, but the third party money that poured in was intense, to say the least.
Earlier today, Kloppenburg declared victory (by 200 votes out of approximately 1.5 million (!) cast. Whoops. They forgot to count the whole city of Brookfield. Prosser looks now to win by some eight thousand as of this writing.
It must be absolutely devastating to the unions and others on the far left to see that for all of the fanfare, protests, marching, chanting, bongo drumming, trashing of the capitol, slogans, and $$$$ that they keep on getting rejected time and time again – even if Kloppenburg would have won by that slim margin, how disappointing it must be for the unions to have to shell out major coin for a stinking supreme court justice spot. Like Walker has said time and again, the state of Wisconsin ins’t all about Madison (thank god).
Walker’s budget has already passed and is the law (with some Democrat votes!). The collective bargaining portion of the budget is still hung up in the courts but I predict that will pass too. How rich to see the Democrats get everything rammed down their throats and all of their yelling and screaming and money does no good whatsoever. See you in November 2012 suckers.
Next up hopefully for me is voter ID and conceal carry.
We may just be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel up here after all. And that light will be, I am hoping, a bright light.
ADDED, 5.33am, April 8, via Althouse:
This is huge for states trying to avoid bankruptcy.
Is this in the bag? Or, will a stash of votes be found in darkest Milwaukee?
I am sick of the nastiness of the left. Let them stew in their own venom on this. Gurara Pobieda.
I was anonymous.
Why do I get the feeling that the Left is going to suddenly find 9000 more votes favoring their candidate?
This looks pretty solid. There will be a recount and things will be challenged, but it looks good.
Some are suggesting the Republicans held back this big lot of votes deliberately, to let the Dems think they just needed a few hundred “special” votes to seal the win. If so it was brilliantly effective (but I doubt it was deliberate). But that is the sort of thing conservatives have to do to counter the fraud made so easy by the electoral system. At least now there is a chance of getting electoral reform through without the supreme court knocking it down.
I really don’t think from what I have seen that this was on purpose, but I guess you never know. What is really interesting is that there were some that caught this before the error was made public – those who were watching the election closely that night saw problems with Waukesha County’s numbers immediately.
I have heard this morning about issues here in Dane County in the City of Madison with vote fraud (ballot stuffing for Kloppenburg) but don’t have any solid proof yet.
How do you know that Kloppenburg didn’t lose over demagoguing the Feeny case in Green Bay? Yeah, she told us her campaign didn’t run those ads, free speech and all of that, but the ads attacking Prosser on that issue were out there.
There are many Roman Catholics in Wisconsin. Many of them Democrats and union members. The Catholic bishops have endorsed collective bargaining as a social justice concern in the context of the Walker intiatives.
What I am saying is that the reelection of Justice Prosser is a good thing — based on a TV debate, I have formed the impression that he will be much more objective and he is indeed not beholden to Governor Walker or anyone else.
But in the celebrating and gloating and nasty barbs towards the Left, it is important to remember that politics is based on coalitions, and some who voted to reelect Justice Prosser may not have much love for Mr. Walker. Are the Catholic bishops who support collective bargaining among the people we wish to stew in their own venom? Are union-member social conservatives in our coalition among the people we wish to stew in their own venom? Is a person who voted for Justice Prosser but who takes offense at the obliquely racist remark “darkest Milwaukee” a person we should toss out of the coalition?
Yes Paul I am gloating over this one a bit. But it is delicious.
Dan,
Congrats to all non lefty Wisconsinites on standing tall in the face of the mob.
Paul,
I’m RC. I tear my hair out every time I hear about the bishops promoting social justice. Collective bargaining as social justice? Really? Collective bargaining can also be a tool of oppression. My first job was as a county surveyor’s technician, $7.55 an hour(1984). After a year or so I found out my starting pay was depressed from normal levels because the union had negotiated a pay freeze for entry level employees in the cycle before I was hired. It was easy for the union and the county to agree on this, because there were no entry level employees on staff during the negotiations. Unions are about using power to benefit their current members. The bishops should consider this before they make their pronouncements.
I’m still Catholic, but not a county employee. I lasted 5 years but the government employee work ethic (or lack thereof) made me look for something else.
Unions are also all about dues. With loss of members, this has become the overwhelming issue.
Paul, it will take a long time for the nastiness of this campaign to wear off. Ann Althouse has documented it and it is pretty awful. I don’t think those people who were demonstrating in Madison, at least the ones who live in Wisconsin, are interested in coalitions.
I for one hope the Leftist do NOT change their tactics. It is a public demonstration of who they are and what they believe.
It’s the sneaky ones that get yea.
“Is a person who voted for Justice Prosser but who takes offense at the obliquely racist remark “darkest Milwaukee” a person we should toss out of the coalition?”
Honi soit qui mal y pense.