NOON UPDATE: Unsurprisingly, Kloppenburg is now in the lead, by about 250 votes. It might as well be a 90,000 vote lead, of course. The problem is a simple one -- Republicans and their allies run for office because they want to govern. Democrats run because they mean to rule.Until and unless Republicans and their supporters become as willing as their opponents to go to the mat, they are going to lose in situations like this.
UPDATE: as of 7:45 a.m., Prosser's lead had grown to about 800 votes. Updates can be found here. More at lunchtime, perhaps.
At this hour it appears that David Prosser has won the Wisconsin Supreme Court election by less than 500 votes over Joanne Kloppenburg. Is that enough of a margin to withstand a recount? It depends. The eyes of the nation will be on Wisconsin. In general, Democrats find ways to make up close margins after the votes are cast (heh heh). I fully expect Prosser to get the Al Franken treatment. It will be up to the citizenry to hold the Kloppenburg camp accountable. Since I would imagine that people in Wisconsin are, above all, tired of all the controversy, that really bodes well for Kloppenburg, since there is a natural tendency for people to avert their gaze from the political shenanigans.
One other practice that happened yesterday, one that I really hate, is the penchant that certain counties have of holding off reporting their votes until after other counties do. There was a game of chicken going on between heavily liberal Dane County and heavily conservative Waukesha County last night. It makes you think that when that happens, it means at least one side is trying to figure out how many votes they need to win. And that sort of thing breeds distrust of the voting process. As it should.
6 comments:
Miwaukee and Dane County and their democratic held voting boards have been pulling the vote holding charades game for years. Scores of elections (including Obama in 2008) were close only to have enough votes mysteriously appear during the night when the numbers were necessary. Look for thousands of "missing" absentee ballots to "show up" mysteriously. The republicans are on the this game, and have held back Wauhesha County so that the Dems don't know how many votes they need to make up.
During one recent election with heavy turnout, Milwaukee had more votes counted than were recorded as cast. Checks showed that many "registered" votes lived in vacant lots, and other fictitious addresses (Like 1060 W Addidson in the Blues Brohters). This isn't over by a long shot, but the taint of vote fixing will remain.
No matter what the result, the election falls decidedly short of the Mandate of the People that the Union Thugs sought out. I wonder how many buses of thugs "moved" to Wisconsin to vote.
With extremly loose registration rules, I'd be willing to bet that there are all kinds of shenanigans, including many new Wisconsin residents, college students voting at home and on absentee ballots, Felons voting, etc, etc....Chicago should be proud of their little brother to the north.
We'll just have to let the voting process run its course.
No signatures for recall petitions were sought at my voting place at Hoover school in Neenah yesterday morning. At 8:15am I was voter 105.
I watched Kloppenburg on TV this morning for the first time; are we sure this isn't Jim Doyle in drag?
Anon, I'd agree with all of that, with one exception. The union thugs don't care at all about getting a "Mandate of the People." All they have to do is get one more vote counted than the other guys and they will take and wield power without hesitation or impunity.
Gerry, correct me if I'm wrong about this, but I've had the impression that Neenah is pretty stable politically over the years, in a moderately conservative way. Is not Michael Ellis from Neenah?
Dan, I kinda see Kloppenburg as the love child of Jim Doyle and Margaret Dumont (of Marx Brothers fame).
Ugh, Mr. D - that thought is almost as revolting as the politics in Wisconsin.
Perhaps you could update this a tad: Kloppenburg is the love child of Dr. Evil and Frau Farbissina ("Daddy's all pent up")?
Kloppenberg actually may be the love child of Patrick Lucey and Shirley Abramhamson, at least from an idealogue and appearance perspective. One of the most impressive mugs seen since Janet Reno.
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