When a little-known liberal challenged a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, the once-sleepy race suddenly looked like a backdoor way for Gov. Scott Walker's opponents to sink his agenda.
Then a clerk discovered 14,000 unrecorded votes that vaulted the incumbent into the lead. Experts said the results represented a draw for the governor: He didn't lose, but the slim margin means he didn't win big, either. And the close contest could help ensure Walker's opponents stay energized for the next round.
The outcome also improves the odds that Walker's collective bargaining law would survive a legal challenge before the high court. However, the narrow victory denied the governor a clear public endorsement of his policy.
The conservative "didn't win by the margin everyone expected him to win by," said University of Wisconsin-Green Bay political science professor Michael Kraft. "If I were Walker, I wouldn't be saying everything is just dandy and people love me."
Only a short time ago, Justice David Prosser had been expected to coast to another term after 12 years on the bench.
In February, he emerged from a four-way primary with 55 percent of the vote, far ahead of JoAnne Kloppenburg, an assistant state attorney virtually no one had ever heard of. She came in a distant second with 28 percent, setting up an uphill run against Prosser in the general election.
Then outrage over Walker's plan to strip public workers of nearly all their union rights reached a crescendo. Tens of thousands of people converged on the state Capitol for three weeks of nonstop protests, and minority Democrats in the state Senate fled to Illinois to block a vote.
Republicans in the Legislature eventually passed the plan without Senate Democrats, and Walker signed it into law last month. The law is bogged down in multiple legal challenges, though, and has not taken effect.
Democrats and Kloppenburg supporters worked to tap into the anger surrounding the measure. They hoped electing Kloppenburg would tilt the state Supreme Court to the left, increasing the chances that the justices might eventually strike down the law.
They attacked Prosser as a Walker clone and sought to tie him to the governor's aggressive budget-cutting agenda.
Read more here
Then a clerk discovered 14,000 unrecorded votes that vaulted the incumbent into the lead. Experts said the results represented a draw for the governor: He didn't lose, but the slim margin means he didn't win big, either. And the close contest could help ensure Walker's opponents stay energized for the next round.
The outcome also improves the odds that Walker's collective bargaining law would survive a legal challenge before the high court. However, the narrow victory denied the governor a clear public endorsement of his policy.
The conservative "didn't win by the margin everyone expected him to win by," said University of Wisconsin-Green Bay political science professor Michael Kraft. "If I were Walker, I wouldn't be saying everything is just dandy and people love me."
Only a short time ago, Justice David Prosser had been expected to coast to another term after 12 years on the bench.
In February, he emerged from a four-way primary with 55 percent of the vote, far ahead of JoAnne Kloppenburg, an assistant state attorney virtually no one had ever heard of. She came in a distant second with 28 percent, setting up an uphill run against Prosser in the general election.
Then outrage over Walker's plan to strip public workers of nearly all their union rights reached a crescendo. Tens of thousands of people converged on the state Capitol for three weeks of nonstop protests, and minority Democrats in the state Senate fled to Illinois to block a vote.
Republicans in the Legislature eventually passed the plan without Senate Democrats, and Walker signed it into law last month. The law is bogged down in multiple legal challenges, though, and has not taken effect.
Democrats and Kloppenburg supporters worked to tap into the anger surrounding the measure. They hoped electing Kloppenburg would tilt the state Supreme Court to the left, increasing the chances that the justices might eventually strike down the law.
They attacked Prosser as a Walker clone and sought to tie him to the governor's aggressive budget-cutting agenda.
Read more here
Even when they cheat Democrats are losers!
ReplyDelete