As of this writing, Joanne Kloppenburg clings to a tiny lead over David Prosser, with the result not to be known for weeks or months until after a likely recount. As we know from Minnesota, recounts are not to be taken lightly, and need to be fought tooth and nail.
But regardless of how the result turns out, there are some clear takeaways:
- Every vote counts. There were approximately 1.5 million votes cast, and the gap is about 200 votes. Republicans need to push hard on voter integrity legislation and practices. One can only imagine how many U. Wisconsin – Madison students who are registered to vote elsewhere, and whose parents probably claim them as residents of other states for tax purposes, voted in the election. It probably made the difference. Laws that ensure that only those entitled to vote can and do vote are hated by Democrats for this and similar reasons.
- Don’t believe the spin being put out by PPP Polling and others that Republicans are doomed, and that the world changed after the November elections. Gov. Scott Walker received 52% of the vote in November, so Prosser — who was slow out of the gate to respond to attack ads — did only 2% worse. And that in an emotional atmosphere in which Democrats staked everything, but Republicans only became motivated in the final couple of weeks. As Matthew Knee pointed out this morning, big labor proved much less formidable than expected.
- The courts matter, including trial courts. This was an election for the Supreme Court, but trial court Judge Sumi’s extraordinary interference in the legislative process provided solace and encouragement to anti-Prosser forces. By making what was a legislative issue a judicial issue, Judge Sumi — whether she intended to or not — made the Supreme Court race the key event in the political war over collective bargaining.
- Keep in mind the courts when thinking about the 2012 presidential election. Six more years of Barack Obama likely will result in a change in the character of the U.S. Supreme Court.
- We have to police the police. Who could have imagined that police unions would join protesters and engage in acts of political intimidation? Who could have imagined that a county Sheriff would declare that his officers would not act as “palace guards” when protecting the State Capitol? Public sector unions are more than economic issues, they are central players in whether voters or unions control government.
- Conservatives were complacent, but are motivated now. Consider the Wisconsin Supreme Court election the wake up call for the majority which grew complacent after November. Conservatives around the country need to understand that nothing can be taken for granted.
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Comments
Here is a plan, for a retro-voting activity. The names and addresses of all who voted is a matter of public record. Publish those names and addresses, precinct by precinct. Then TEA Party types need to divvy up the lists and go through them one name at a time. Who voted absentee? How many people are living at this address? Is there collaborating evidence that a particular voter voted where they should not have? Then, those who voted fraudulently need to be charged, as well as those who aided and abetted said behavior.
Recall elections are coming. The need for accurate voter lists is going to be very important, again, very soon.
"tea" is a drink made by brewing prepared plant leaves. "TEA", short for "T.E.A." is an acronym for "Taxed Enough Already", a group unhappy with the size and scope of our government. Nomenclature is important, let's use the right TEA.
And, I reiterate: standing on principle and not taking this issue out of Sumi's hands by redoing the votes, which could have been a one day thing, hurt us here.
Are we happy, now?
Not making this happen was a mistake. A huge mistake. And every day that goes by without fixing this makes it even bigger.
#6 will never be learned. Everyone gets complacent eventually. It's a lesson that must always be relearned and the reason the pendulum always swings back.
I like Milwaukee's idea. It goes along nicely with what retire05 said in another post about the King Street Patriots of Houston.
I'm a busy guy with a full-time job, always simultaneously enrolled half-time in school, with wife and kids, etc.
I have hardly any spare time, but I'd still be willing to give what I could in spare time to help out the cause. I'm sure housewives and others with plenty of spare time could be enlisted.
Maybe it's Admiral Yamamoto time … time to make them wish they'd never won this battle.
Yeah, this is well within the margin of fraud. If its close, the Democrat wins.
The difficulty with #6 and Conservatives is this: Conservatives are more of the "live and let live" mentality. Liberals are more about telling others how to live their lives so those other people can be better people. Progressives would say "OH, you shouldn't smoke, it's bad for you." Conservatives might say, "Please smoke where I don't have to smell it." (and then frequent restaurants where people don't smoke, if they don't like the smell: no conversation, just go somewhere else.) Since Liberals are always on the look out for how they can help you be a better person, they keep coming up with crap. How stupid does a person need to be to not realize that certain foods are fattening? Now we are going to post that in vending machines.
Abortion is an exception, as we perceive the unborn to be a life, and so objecting to abortion is about protecting those who can not protect themselves, not about telling mothers how to live their lives.
Some conservative business people enter politics to protect their wealth from the deprivations of looters, not to promote their conservative agenda.
I hope this will post…
If you can get the lists of students from out-of-state, those of us in various other states can verify if they are registered in their home state. Somebody send me names from Montana…
Partially off topic: Glenn Beck closes down his show on Fox. At least partially because of boycotts of sponsors. Yet another way for the Left to smother alternate viewpoints.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Glenn-Beck-leaving-his-Fox-apf-2944451931.html?x=0&sec;=topStories&pos;=8&asset;=&ccode;=
Link to article re Glenn Beck show changes:
http://nation.foxnews.com/glenn-beck/2011/04/06/glenn-beck-end-daily-fox-news-program
Excerpt:
”..Fox News and Mercury Radio Arts, Glenn Beck's production company, are proud to announce that they will work together to develop and produce a variety of television projects for air on the Fox News Channel as well as content for other platforms including Fox News’ digital properties. Glenn intends to transition off of his daily program, the third highest-rated in all of cable news, later this year.
“Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO of Fox News said, "Glenn Beck is a powerful communicator, a creative entrepreneur and a true success by anybody’s standards. I look forward to continuing to work with him. Glenn Beck said: "I truly believe that America owes a lot to Roger Ailes and Fox News. I cannot repay Roger for the lessons I’ve learned and will continue to learn from him and I look forward to starting this new phase of our partnership."
These things shouldn't be close, but elections seem to prey on fear and apprehension, and then you see outcomes that resemble coin tosses (except thanks to the Soros secretary of state project, the last coin is always heads up democrat). Maybe a sit out strategy is in order, let the leftist utopia continue with NO conservatives to blame. What's the point of winning elections and implementing policy when it results in mob assaults, death threats and over-reaching judicial injunctions? This election will stand as an endorsement of those very tactics.
I think there is merit in the idea of spreading around the work of looking for illegal votes in WI by publishing as much as possible on the internet and letting us all check out the possible violations from students who are registered in other states. Call me skeptical, however, after seeing the vast disrespect for the law up there to date, I would be shocked if by working together, we couldn't uncover enough illegal votes in this election to turn it around.
Everyone knows the Democrats are proficient at stealing elections because they believe in "Dare to cheat, dare to win". Unless we go to the mat with them on every single marginal vote, they will continue to try to nullify the electoral process across this entire nation.
Let’s get together on this one and use the power of our diligence and the courage of our convictions to challenge this one to high heaven and not allow another Frankenized election to take place in America ever again.
Well, I'm a busy housewife and mother, but I would be happy to help with this verification of authentic votes. How does something like this start? People in the actual precincts sending out voter lists?
Walker and the GOPers should have noticed a revote on the budget repair bill for yesterday. That would have limited Dem turnout.
Robin,
You can start by searching here.
http://www.truethevote.org/
"Don't believe the spin being put out by PPP Polling and others that Republicans are doomed, and that the world changed after the November elections. Gov. Scott Walker received 52% of the vote in November, so Prosser — who was slow out of the gate to respond to attack ads — did only 2% worse. And that in an emotional atmosphere in which Democrats staked everything, but Republicans only became motivated in the final couple of weeks. As Matthew Knee pointed out this morning, big labor proved much less formidable than expected."
Prosser lost after holding a 30-point lead two months ago in an election that was made a referendum by both sides. Pro-Prosser ads outspent pro-Kloppenburg. A third of the voting-age population turned out, 68% more than official estimates. There's no way to spin out of this.
1. The Left was obviously going all-in, but I detected little urgency in the Right blogosphere until a week or two before the election.
2. Ordinary people can't be politically active 24/7/365. It was up to the Republican Establishment to step into the breach in this off-year election. It was up to Scott Walker to sound the alarm.
3. Was this a typical case of the Stupid Party being stupid, or are there those in the GOP Establishment that are not unhappy to see the Tea Party taken down a notch?
4. I suspect the Left is pleased as punch, now that it's too late, to watch the Right waste its time questioning the results. Meanwhile the Left can move on to the recalls.
5. I agree with Aidan that there's no way to spin out of this. This is a clear defeat for a GOP that relied on Democrat incompetence to win the November election. (With exceptions like Paul Ryan and elements of the Tea Parties.)
Prosser lost after holding a 30-point lead two months ago in an election that was made a referendum by both sides
Yah, well, in the primary, actual judicial qualifications counted.
AFTER the primary and $3.5 million in union lying-cum-propaganda attack ads, Prosser showed only a 2% degrade from Walker's margin.
Dane County, with 100,000+ votes for continuing Statism/Command-and-Control Government in Wisconsin, perhaps has won. So far. This time.
But those recalls? Cold hard analysis of the voting in the Prosser election tells us that 1 Republican is in danger, but THREE Democrats are at great risk.
We'll keep playing. The cards are running our way.
To add to my post on the WI recall race(s) and how all this ties together. Badgerblogger posted some insight that reinforces my thoughts.
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=19730
"The way I see it, one Republican may be in danger, but three Democrats are clearly in trouble and if the elections are held, and I believe they will be, are going to be real trouble for these Democrats, if the GOP has decent challengers."
The key part being the decent GOP challengers. We won't vote against Sen Wirch in my district just to vote against someone. He'll get that message from the fact that we got the recall signatures. To show up this summer and vote in s apecial election, we need a reason to vote for a GOP candidate. I hope someone effective steps up, in each case.
As far as the SC recount goes, I think we have much in our favor. The irregularities are pouring in. We'll see how the "system" holds up to scrutiny. Lots of eyeballs on WI right now. Even if the D's win, the picture is clearer as to what what we are fighting against, and the depths they are willing to go. This hurt them in 2010, it'll hurt them again. They'll have to find even greater ways to invalidate our vote. Keep the sunlight going.
Why would it matter to compare the percent who voted for Prosser in April to the percent who voted for Walker in November when you can compare the amount who supported Prosser in February with his final percent?
If you want to gauge support for Scott Walker, his most recent disapproval rating is 5 points higher than the percent who voted for him in November. It's certainly not a perfect measurement, but it's not something I'd feel confident about if I was a Wisconsin Republican.
The issue here is that the WI GOP Senate didn't have the spine to pass this bill in a way that the courts would have nothing to do with it. The whole court battle here is based on a technicality of how many hours the GOP waited to pass a bill, and that is all. If the GOP Senators were smart enough to pass a bill in a way that would raise no questions, Prosser would have won in a landslide, because the Supreme Court election would have meant nothing to the unions. Let's blame the source of the problem; once again, it comes down to a spineless GOP.