By winning four of six recall elections in GOP-held districts Wisconsin Republicans have retained a 17-16 advantage in the state Senate and have effectively demolished Democrat aspirations of turning back recent legislation that has imposed limits on the bargaining power of public sector unions. The unofficial results of yesterday's recall vote leave Republicans in control of both houses of the Wisconsin state legislature and the governorship.
In the Milwaukee-area 8th District, where a winner wasn't declared until after midnight local time, incumbent Republican Sen. Alberta Darling defeated Democratic challenger Sandy Pasch, 54% to 46%, with 84% of precincts reporting, according to unofficial results from the Associated Press.
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Republicans held on in three other districts. In the 14th District, in central Wisconsin, Republican Sen. Luther Olsen defeated Democratic state Rep. Fred Clark, 52% to 48%.In the 10th District in northwest Wisconsin, Republican Sen. Sheila Harsdorf beat Democrat Shelly Moore, 58% to 42%.
In the 2nd District in northeast Wisconsin, incumbent Sen. Robert Cowles beat Democratic challenger Nancy Nusbaum, 60% to 40%.
In the 18th District, Democrat Jessica King was declared the winner over incumbent Sen. Randy Hopper, 51% to 49%. In their 2008 contest for the Senate seat, Mr. Hopper defeated Ms. King by less than 200 votes.
Democratic state Rep. Jennifer Shilling ousted Republican Sen. Dan Kapanke in the 32nd District, 55% to 45%.
The recall election had national implications. As Wisconsin and other state governments successfully challenged the power of the public sector unions, Democrats and labor unions pushed back by petitioning for recall elections in hope of turning the legislative tide. According to a Washington Post article published before the votes were tallied, a lot was riding on these votes.
The stakes could hardly be higher. Democrats and their allies in organized labor are hoping for a net gain of three seats, which would give them control of the state Senate, which, like the assembly, is controlled by Republicans.
“If you were a Republican governor in another state and the Democrats make a big comeback in these elections, it says you might want to slow down a little,” said Joseph Heim, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse.
The Democrats also hope a victory would serve as a warning to national Republicans, who they think have overreached in their policy aims. It would also give them momentum in a state crucial to President Obama’s 2012 reelection prospects, while setting the stage for a possible recall of Walker next year.
“These elections are little proxies for what is going to happen for the rest of the country,” said Rick Badger, executive director of AFSCME Council 40, which represents 32,000 local government workers across Wisconsin.
With record amounts of money flowing into Wisconsin, Republicans just barely hung onto their senate majority. But their one-vote margin may widen, since two Democratic senators face recall elections next Tuesday.
Outside groups — led by national unions on the Democratic side and limited government groups such as the Wisconsin Club for Growth on the Republican side — have shoveled more than $25 million into the recall effort, with both sides spending about the same amount. The candidates, meanwhile, have raised more than $5 million.
The staggering dollar amounts being showered on the eight recall campaigns — which after a July 19 election and Tuesday’s six contests will conclude with two elections on Aug. 16 — are shattering state records. In 2010, when the 99-member assembly and half the 33-member state Senate was up for election, outside organizations spent $3.75 million in Wisconsin — 15 percent of this year’s total.
It is a striking turn of events. Wisconsin had been one of the bluest of blue states, but in the 2010 midterm election Democrats were swept out of office leaving Republicans in control of the governorship, both houses of the legislature, and even the state supreme court. The Democrats' failure to retake the state Senate in their high stakes recall gamble can only be interpreted as a ringing endorsement of the policies pursued by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and other GOP governors.
I can't help but see this as a very good sign of things to come in 2012.
Update: David Freddoso describes just how badly the unions got thumped.
In the end, the union-backed Democrats picked up only two state Senate seats in Wisconsin last night, at a staggering cost in time, effort, and of course money. One of the seats was solidly Democratic, held by a Republican due to an apparent fluke of nature. The other was held by an alleged adulterer who had moved outside his district to live with his young mistress, and whose wife was supporting his recall.
As for the other four Republican incumbents the unions tried to recall, they didn't end up coming very close. And remember -- these weren't just any Republican incumbents. These were the ones that the unions judged most vulnerable, which is why they collected petition signatures against them.
Meanwhile lefty Markos Moulitsas feels "strangely energized and elated," which might also be translated as "delusional." He thinks it was a great Democratic victory.
Ooooo...now, my raison d'etre is to hang on every further word from the jurno-lists until the Flee-Party results come in.
Posted by: CaptDMO | August 13, 2011 at 06:55 PM