Kloppenburg won an election she should never have won dealing a humiliating blow to the Republican Tea Party and their media toads. This is a total Wisonsin smackdown of Scott Walker.
Prosser should really understand it is time to leave the stage, by sticking around he is just hurting Wisconsin.
There is serious businesss to conduct and Prosser is just gumming up the works by trying to challenge this.
And my spine is stiffend further.God bless the voters who ousted this
one eyed undertaker.
Kloppenburg gained 30% in weeks, all due to Scott Walker.
I read they gained 10,000 additional recall signatures yesterday. They already have enough to force 2 recalls, and both those districts (Kapakne & Hopper) went Kloppenburg.
Beck bagged, Adios Ayotte and Prosser panned. Great day in America.
Two things:
1) 200 votes is not a “smackdown”, considering it was framed as a partisan fight. Especially when Prosser couldn’t raise any funds and that all of the unions were pulling out all of the stops. The right never got organized for this election.
2) Election of judges is the dumbest idea ever. Justices are also supposed to push back on popular sentiment and protect minority rights. Do you agree with the recall of the three Iowa judges that voted to allow gay marriage? Elections require campaign funds. Campaign funds require donors. These donors will want something back from the judges, quid pro quo. Therefore, we get corruption of the judicial branch, similar to the corruption in the legislative and executive branch. Who’s going to stand up for the gays in Iowa or the right to due process for criminals if the judge’s decision is susceptible to popular pressure?
Furthermore, this is a springtime election. You’re like the delawarepolitics.net folk yelling “the people have spoken” after the Kovach special election win.
“200 votes is not a ‘smackdown’”
It is when you had a 30% point lead just two months ago. With that level of momentum if the election had been held a month from now, we would not be talking about a recount.
Prosser surrogates spent 2x what Kloppenburg surrogates spent.
It may have been a spring election but the turnout was actually higher than in November.
Libertarian My Ass, I agree with your second point.
…regarding the election of judges.
If I read the comment right, Jason330 just said he had a libertarian ass. 🙁
“Especially when Prosser couldn’t raise any funds and that all of the unions were pulling out all of the stops. The right never got organized for this election.”
Really?
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/judicial_public_financing_in_wisconsin_2011/
“Total special-interest spending through Tuesday, April 5, 2011: $3,581,460.
Greater Wisconsin Committee (GWC)— $1,365,340.
Issues Mobilization Council of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC)— $910,970.
Citizens for a Strong America (CSA)— $836,090.
Wisconsin Club for Growth (CFG)— $415,860.
State Tea Party Express— $53,200.”
Of all those groups, only the Greater Wisconsin Committee supported Kloppenburg.
Also:
“Furthermore, this is a springtime election. You’re like the delawarepolitics.net folk yelling “the people have spoken” after the Kovach special election win.”
1.5 million people is not enough? Sure, it’s not the Presidential levels of turnout, but check out the turnout figures from the past few Supreme Court elections:
2009 – 793,864
2008 – 830,450
2007 – 831,657
2006 – 502,688
2005 – 552,790
2003 – 800,785
2001 – 552,429 (Prosser, unopposed)
2000 – 817,748
Looks like record turnout for a Supreme Court election to me.
Thanks for doing the heavy lifting, Johnny!
Johnny Longtorso,
Furthermore, you’re correct that Prosser had financial support (even though the largest donor group was pro-kloppenburg). But time is of the essence and the earlier you organize, the better. Dollars raised does not equal dollars spent. Look at Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell: they raised boatloads of dollars at the tail ends of the campaign, but they did not have time to spend it (although, O’Donnell may have been pocketing the cash). And in this campaign, the 1.365 million dollars raised for Kloppenburg had a greater effect, because it was raised and spent earlier. The money spent for Prosser was significant in magnitude, but it was raised and spent(maybe) at the last moment, therefore, they were ineffective. Also, the right rank and file never got organized unlike the left rank and file.
Yes, turnout is greater for this judicial election, but it’s still way less than the 2.145 million people who voted in the midterms or the 2.93 million people who voted in the 2008 presidential election.
Overall, your numbers prove my second point. You don’t think Kloppenburg will give judgments the unions want in exchange for their funds or Prosser would give judgments the manufacturers want in exchange for their funds.
“This is a total Wisonsin smackdown of
Scott Walkerunion thuggery.”http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/119421429.html
“The latest vote count in the state Supreme Court race in Winnebago County indicates incumbent David Prosser is leading Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg in votes.”
Looks like Waukesha county did not count votes from an entire town (Brookfield) until today: http://elections.wispolitics.com/ and http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/119410124.html. swingstateproject has more.
The second dumbest idea: Wisconsin’s vote counting. They had a whole bunch of empty precincts. I remember watching the results on the associated press website and after one county counted 53 precincts, the vote totals did not change.
Breaking on hardball,
“newly found votes” give Prisser 7381 vote lead in Wis SC… WTF?
It appears some public employee didn’t do their job very well, missing a few thousand votes. Now there will be no union to protect their incompetence. [Tongue in Cheek]
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/waukesha-clerk-announces-votes-for-prosser-im-thankful-that-this-error-was-caught-early.php
I heard that the Waukesha County Clerk also found Judge Crater.
love the comment that public employees didnt do their job well. ha. just another union job done well….hope you guys didnt go out and celebrate your ‘victory’ too much
Well…it seems the people of Wisconsin have indeed spoken. Unfortunately, they didn’t say what you were hoping they would say.
No, Dominique, they pulled a Richard Daley. Guess the Waukesha county clerk went back in her time machine to 1960 and found some “missing” votes.
Still, this is the type of flaming fiasco the Wisconsin voters are going to remember. Even if legitimate, a judge of long-standing was close to being removed by an electorate fired up in about six weeks for the singular purpose of removing HIM to help the larger political picture for the PEOPLE of Wisconsin.
I don’t think voter fraud is at play here. What I do think is that a guy who should have won in a landslide didn’t. Wisconsin Republicans are nervous, and they should be. Going from a 30% lead to a horse race in two months is the sort of thing that keeps politicians up at night.
“County Clerk in Wisconsin’s Most Liberal County Finds 7,000 Kloppenburg votes.” Imagine the pandemonium.
Parents, don’t let your kids grow up to use Microsoft products.
Yea, Jason. The lead on all the FOX networks.
FUCKING BLUNT-SKULLS !!!!
Waukesha County is one of the most conservative counties in the state. My in-laws, who are conservative republicans, live there, and they are the rule not the exception.
What were the returns in Waukesha PRIOR to the “found” votes? Was it like, “whoa Kloppenburg is hanging tough against Prossy.” or what?
Yay! This shows how Walker is an idiot! Yay! We are so awesome, yay! we killed Prosser by a couple hundred votes by mobilizing every bit of voting power (most of whom didn’t vote before) that we had! Yay!
Oh, yeah, Prosser won, by a sight more than a couple hundred. Must mean the Public still backs Walker.
Oh no, hope none of you celebrated too much there.