Post-mortem — No excuses or hand holding. Bad News: Dems held both their seats, and Republicans hold the Senate by only one seat. Good News: Republicans hold the Governorship, Senate and Assembly, and the big things have been done, including the collective bargaining law, the budget and the redistricting. The Dem gains will be short-lived because once redistricting takes effect, it will be harder for Democrats to retake the Senate (Wirch, for example, will lose most of his current district).
So tonight is not for us to celebrate or take any victory dances. But I still feel good, in a mellow kind of way, because the end result is that Republicans in Wisconsin beat back mob rule:
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Polls close at 8 p.m. Central. Results from WisPolitics (results Central time):
Last updated at 10:06 p.m.
12th Senate District – 78% reporting
54% – Sen. Jim Holperin, D-Conover (Incumbent) – x
46% – Kim Simac, R-Eagle River
22nd Senate District – 100% reporting
58% – Sen. Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie (Inc.) – x
42% – Jonathan Steitz, R-Pleasant Prairie
Updates (most recent at top)(times in Central):
9:50 – AP calls it for Holperin.
9:45 — Just a matter of time until they call it for Holperin.
9:38 — Results slow to come in in District 12, as predicted. Still fewer than half reported.
9:25 — AP calls it for Wirch
9:22 – Not looking good for either Republican challenger.
9:14 — Athough not in the listed results, looks like Wirch pulling into the lead.
8:59 — Steitz lead may not last, Kenosha not reported yet.
8:50 — Doesn’t look good for Simac, but I don’t know enought about where the votes have come from to say if it’s over. Charlie Sykes says she’s underperforming.
8:31 — Don’t read too much into early results, not clear who is under/over performing.
8:15 — Looks like could be long night in 12th District due to heavy volume and hand count only.
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From earlier in the evening, before the polls closed:
Will start posting results as they come in, but will use the time before then to post some stray info. about Wisconsin and the recalls:
Did you know that the NRA endorsed one of the Democrats being recalled? Yup, Jim Holperin, considered the most vulnerable of the two, was endorsed by the NRA in late July. As Kevin Binversie of Lakeshore Laments points out, if Holperin wins, he may have the NRA to thank. So you NRA members out there should let NRA headquarters know how pleased you are (the challenger, Kim Simac, has a very strong 2nd Amendment position and history).
One result of the collective bargaining bill is that the Wisconsin teachers union has laid off 40% of its staff, because they have very little to do.
Voting apparently is heavy today.
The three Twitter feeds I’m following are @KevinBinversie, @steveegg and @SykesCharlie. They know Wisconsin.
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Comments
NRA members fed up with NRA politics should take a look at Gun Owners of America.
I declined to renew my NRA membership after they endorsed Dede Scozzafava in the NY23 special election a year or so ago.
She dropped out of the race days before and endorsed the left-wing Democrat sending the independent conservative to lose.
You can find a better gun owner’s group than NRA.
GOA in Wisconsin
There for the Prosser recount
http://gunowners.org/a04142011.htm
“After a devastating loss last week in the attempted recalls of six Republican senators, Democrats and liberals may not be very motivated to go out and vote to help Wirch and Holperin to keep their jobs. This could bode well for Simac and Seitz – if Republican voters have a large turnout. Maybe even some Democrats might want to send a message to Wirth or Holperin – by voting for the Republicans!”
http://www.livinglakecountry.com/blogs/communityblogs/127782778.html
Pollutico spins like mad….
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61425.html
“Democrats and liberals may not be very motivated to go out and vote”
One can but hope, Viator.
[…] still looking for the AP link for the results: but you’ll be able to see them here (via Legal Insurrection) in the […]
[…] still looking for the AP link for the results: but you’ll be able to see them here (via Legal Insurrection) in the […]
Some videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwlT74uYb5M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGCBhOB0LKw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ8MXWkbiWE
You probably already know this, but the NRA always endorses pro-gun incumbents. It’s their way of staying a single-issue entity and avoiding party affiliation.
http://www.nraila.org/Issues/Articles/Read.aspx?id=413&issue=047
Jim Holperin caught hiding from the citizens of Wisconsin at the Clocktower Resort in Rockford, Illinois. The Clocktower is famous for the Tilted Kilt Resraurant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxKk3DSW6Sk
[…] still looking for the AP link for the results: but you’ll be able to see them here (via Legal Insurrection) in the […]
1 % in wirch 70 %
as life member, i called the NRA about their support of Reid, and got a lecture from a nasty toned punk about “the big picture” and “political reality” and a bunch of other BS buzzwords…
if they didn’t already have my money, and weren’t so generally effective i’d tell them to go pound sand.
it has been awhile since i’ve donated to them though, and it sounds like it’s going to be a lot longer before i do.
Markos Moulitsas just tweeted that polling indicates both Dems win by double digits http://twitter.com/#!/markos/status/102934233256951808
my mistake – that tweet is 2 days old. I was reading a new re-tweet from Mickey Kaus that made it look fresh.
You have to remember who does their polling…..far left pollsters–completely discredited Kos with false numbers, happened last year.
True, but he dumped that outfit. This group nailed last week’s results.
oooooooh, I didn’t know that. Thank you for the heads up : )
This link seems to be much faster guys
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/127831843.html
http://www.steitzforsenate.com/election-results-live.html
wirch is down 54 …46
MacIver Institute insider’s guide on how to interpret tonights SD12 results.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7822076&id=54163243498
According to McIver Simac’s strong counties are Langdale, Marinette, Vilas, Florence, Marathon.
Lincoln is a draw
Shawano, Forest, Menominee and Oneida Counties favor Holperin
At this point Langdale, Vilas, Florence have not reported.
its early but Wirch is getting his ass handed to him
Kenosha seems to be the wildcard. Wirch just took the lead there as of my most recent refresh with 21 polls of 95 reporting. Here’s the Kenosha specific data:
http://www.co.kenosha.wi.us/countyclerk/election_results/voteresult.phtml
Oh Man, Wirch just took a big lead in Kenosha with 2/3rds of polls reporting. 58/42.
No victory dance tonight.
Kenosha results
http://www.co.kenosha.wi.us/countyclerk/election_results/voteresult.phtml
There is no county that has completely reported in the 12th District yet, still early.
Wirch still down 51 – 49
* SIGH * …. spoke to soon … Wirch up 55 – 45
Simac , Kim GOP 9,771 46%
State Senate – District 22 – General
August 16, 2011 – 09:14PM CT
Wisconsin – 51 of 100 Precincts Reporting – 51%
Name Party Votes Vote %
Wirch , Bob (i) Dem 17,380 55%
Steitz , Jonathan GOP 14,063 45%
Oh, well, good try. Sykes calls both for Dems.
http://twitter.com/#!/SykesCharlie/status/103652334797729792
Following the McIver cheat sheet and JSOnline results at 10:25 District 12 looks like a draw. Only three counties completely in.
50 of Simac’s strongest precincts are not in yet.
District 22 – Campaign reports filed Tuesday show liberal Democrat Robert Wirch’s campaign has raised $257,000 for the year, while conservative Republican Jonathan Steitz brought in $72,000.
Wirch had 3.5 times more money.
I never would have guessed the fleebaggers would sweep the recalls. They get rewarded for running away from home to try to prevent the reform of fiscal policies that will save taxpayers money. Bizarro. Just Bizarro.
Not good, Vilas County just came in 53-47 for Holperin. Simac should have carried Vilas by 52% according to McIver.
How can you vote for someone who abandoned their post?
District 12 – According to campaign finance reports filed this week, Democrat James Holperin outraised conservative tea party candidate Kim Simac for the year by more than double – $494,000 to $221,000.
So Simac go outspent by 2.25 to 1
If conservatives want to win they can’t let that happen.
Apparently she was a flawed candidate. From Charlies Sykes, “Sources: Delinquent tax issue really killed Simac. GOP needs to work on candidate recruitment and vetting.”
I agree, candidates of the right will be viciously attacked with negative campaigns. They should be as little vulnerable to this as possible. That being said, legislatures are full of flawed candidates. Have you looked at the US House Progressive Caucus lately? There are convicted felons in office and some served time, not in the legislature, but in prison.
If you have a “flawed” and inexperienced candidate running against a longtime incumbent who then outspends the challenger by 3 or more to one what does one expect?
Politics is a blood sport. If we want to win we need to have skin in the game. That means sacrifices of our own time and money. We need to at least match the efforts from the left. Look on all these races for after action reports and lessons learned. Apply these lessons to 2012.
Two counties in District 12 still completely unreported.
Stupid NRA.
I would guess that, in general, voters do not like recall elections. This isn’t entirely bad.
Professor J,
You held our collective hands very nicely in the post-mortem! Clear, level-headed thinking, and succinct writing : ) I LIKE that! : )
I’m not sure redistricting will do that much good, but, Voter ID will. I am not discouraged that Democratic districts once again voted Democratic.
Unions blew through $30 million to only win 2 seats, the Republicans maintain the Senate majority. Though bummed, overall I consider the recall elections a win.
Does anyone know when the terms of the Senators who faced recall are up? I think I read that they had to be in office for at least one year before recall was an option, so that would mean that they weren’t elected in 2010.
Correct?
Thanks.
DCP
[…] wasn’t quite the ending any of us wanted. Both of the Wisconsin Fleebaggers up for recall retained their seats. It seems splitting the elections had some effect after all. […]