JoAnne Kloppenburg has won her Wisconsin State Supreme Court seat by a margin so thin it will surely be challenged in court. Even the Wall Street Journal can’t bear to come out and say it, but they note the number of votes cast in the lone precinct still counting would not be enough to overcome Kloppenburg’s lead. (Update: all precincts are now in and she's won.)
This was definitely a referendum on Scott Walker’s government. So watch out, State Senator Dan Kapanke:
Miller made one more point. According to his math, Kloppenburg won by a 60-40 margin in the district of Dan Kapanke, the first Republican that recall petitions were submitted against.
And while all of the attention has been focused on the State Supreme Court race, another Democratic win is to my “honorary Wisconsinite” eyes every bit the Scott Walker referendum the Prosser/Kloppenburg race has been. This was for Scott Walker’s old seat as Milwaukee County Executive, and it was won by Democrat Chris Abele over Republican Jeff Stone, now serving in the Wisconsin state house. Said Stone:
After losing the Milwaukee County executive race to Chris Abele, state Rep. Jeff Stone said the political environment in Madison made it tough for a state legislator to get elected.
“We just have to give the environment a little bit of time,” Stone said. “Chris has some big challenges ahead of him.”
Yes, I’m sure being despised to the point where you’ve actually mobilized tens of thousands of people in the dead of a Wisconsin winter to haul ass off their sofas and out into the cold to protest your crazy legislation would qualify as a "tough political environment." [/sarcasm]
And what are these challenges awaiting new the Milwaukee County Executive?
“It’s going to put in a new, eager, ambitious young man who's going to have to come up with a budget in 60 days,” he said.
Cesarz said the county’s current fiscal problems mean the County Board and Abele must work cooperatively.
“I think it has to, because all of the fixes for the last 20 years aren’t available to us any more,” Cesarz said.
I do not live in this community, but this is the first I've heard that Milwaukee County is having fiscal problems. Wouldn’t that be the fault of the last person to hold the County Executive seat? Isn’t that ... Governor Scott Walker? How did this assclown get elected?
Any Wisconsinites out there who can enlighten me?
Anyway, I have to think Republicans across the country -- especially John Boehner, currently caught between a soggy Tea Bag and a hard place -- are looking at what this extremism has done for the party and will now feel free to distance themselves. Hell, even Glenn Beck is leaving his self-titled show.
It appears schadenfreude is what’s on the lunch menu today.
