Victory in Wisconsin - Elections Were a Referendum on Walker

1. Victory in Wisconsin (Bold Progressives)
2. Kloppenburg Declares Victory Over Prosser in Wisconsin
   Supreme Court Election (John Nichols in The Nation)
3. Wisconsin's Elections Were a Referendum on Walker 
   (Matthew Rothschild in The Progressive)

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Victory in Wisconsin

Bold Progressives

http://boldprogressives.org/home

BREAKING NEWS: We did it!! Together, progressives defeated
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's choice for state Supreme
Court -- and won back the "swing" vote that could soon
decide whether Walker's anti-worker bill is illegal.

The margin was 204 votes! And in the last week, members of
the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for
America made 96,945 phone calls to targeted voters through
our "Call Out The Vote" program.

It's undeniable: PCCC members like you made the difference
and helped win this important race.

Please spread the word about this progressive victory on
Facebook by clicking here and on Twitter by clicking here.)

Now we have to finish the job. When we win the upcoming
recall elections against Republicans in Wisconsin it will
have ripple effects across the nation -- showing that
working families will hold Republicans accountable for their
war on the middle class.

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Kloppenburg Declares Victory Over Prosser in Wisconsin
Supreme Court Election

by John Nichols

The Nation Blog

April 6, 2010

http://www.thenation.com/blog/159714/kloppenburg-declares-victory-over-prosser-wisconsin-supreme-court-election

Unknown sixth months ago, unviable six weeks ago, first-time
candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg declared victory Wednesday in
her challenge to a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice closely
aligned with Governor Scott Walker.

It was a narrow but stunning upset win for Kloppenburg - 204
votes out of almost1.5 million cast - that is all but
certain to lead to a recount fight.

But the final unofficial count in a race watched closely not
just in Wisconsin but nationally has already opened a
remarkable new chapter in the story of the political
uprising that began when Republican Governor Scott Walker
launched his assault on public employee unions, public
schools and local democracy in Wisconsin.

Kloppenburg began her campaign for the state Supreme Court
as an all-but-certain loser, a political neophyte
challenging entrenched Justice David Prosser.

As a member of the 4-3 conservative majority on the high
court, Prosser was positioned to secure the major
endorsements, enjoy the support of free-spending special
interest groups and dominate the race. In the mid-February
primary, which came just days after Walker announced his
anti-union project, Prosser defeated Kloppenburg by thirty
points.

But on the same night that Prosser was coasting to that
primary victory, one of the first major demonstrations
against Walker's bill drew 8,000 people to the state Capitol
in Madison. Those numbers grew to 20,000, to 50,000, to
80,000, to 100,000 and ultimately to 125,000 at a mass rally
several weeks ago. The Wisconsin movement became a national
and, ultimately, an international phenomenon.

Slowly, it began to dawn on the protesters that the April 5
Supreme Court election was an opportunity to mount not only
protests in the street but protests at the polls.

Handmade "Kloppenburg" signs began to appear at the rally.
The candidate, an assistant attorney general, was running a
campaign with such a low budget that it could not afford
printed signs, so her supporters made their own.

They also started to expose Prosser as a rigid partisan who
had brought his Republican politics to what is supposed to
be a nonpartisan bench. A former leader of legislative
Republicans who served as Assembly speaker and mentored a
young legislator named Scott Walker, Prosser's re-election
campaign had begun with an announcement that he planned to
make the court a "complement" to the Walker administration
and Republican majorities in the state Assembly and Senate.

Kloppenburg promised to serve as an independent jurist who
would uphold the rule of law, rather than promote the
governor's agenda. That was more than enough for the unions
and their allies, which embraced the Kloppenburg campaign -
along with the hope of grabbing majority control of the
court away from Walker-allied conservatives...

Her candidacy became a focus of the movement that had
developed to oppose Walker's agenda and, as Election Day
approached, the impossible run began to look like the real
thing. Prosser still had all his advantages, but Kloppenburg
had the masses. Outside groups poured money into the
contest, with the majority of it going to Prosser, a Tea
Party favorite endorsed by Sarah Palin. But Kloppenburg had
plenty of support, especially at the grassroots, where the
handmade signs went up all over the state.

As her campaign became an electoral extension of the protest
movement, everyone in Wisconsin - and a lot of folks
nationally - began to talk of the April 5 court contest as
the first real "referendum" on Walker's policies.

And the referendum process is ongoing.

Early Wednesday morning, before she took the lead,
Kloppenburg appeared before her tired yet enthusiastic
supporters in he ballroom of a Madison hotel to announce,
"It's not over yet!"

She could not be more right.

Out of roughly 1.5 million votes cast in a record turnout
for a judicial race of this sort, the challenger now leads
by a bit more than 0.1 percent. That was enough for
Kloppenburg to declare: "We owe Justice Prosser our
gratitude for his more than 30 years of public service.
Wisconsin voters have spoken and I am grateful for, and
humbled by, their confidence and trust. I will be
independent and impartial and I will decide cases based on
the facts and the law. As I have traveled the State, people
tell me they believe partisan politics do not belong in our
Courts. I look forward to bringing new blood to the Supreme
Court and focusing my energy on the important work Wisconsin
residents elect Supreme Court justices to do."

But Prosser, a brass-knuckles pol backed by brass-knuckles
pols, is unlikely to accept the gratitude and exit
gracefully.

The closeness of the contest all but assures that, no matter
which candidate secures a marginal lead, a full recount will
be conducted.

Under Wisconsin law, the costs of a recount are paid by the
state if the margin of different between the two candidates
is less than 0.5 percent of the vote. That is certain to be
the case in this contest.

So Kloppenburg's race is not done.

But she has, in so many senses, already won.

Kloppenburg deserves credit for her unprecedented
accomplishment. She ran a tremendous race.

But credit is also due to the movements that came from the
streets to the polling places and turned an also-ran
candidacy into the frontrunner.

Prosser can be counted on to demand a recount.

There could be weeks, even months of wrangling over ballots
and counts. But one result has already been confirmed: The
referendum on Walker's policies has sent an important
signal. When a candidate who is not given a chance ties a
senior justice on the state Supreme Court, when a newcomer
ties one of the most entrenched political players in the
state, and when these results can be linked to fury at a
governor's policies, that governor has nothing to celebrate.
Something is changing in Wisconsin. A new politics is taking
shape. And JoAnne Kloppenburg has been a beneficiary - along
with the battered but unbeaten state of Wisconsin.

[John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written
the Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated
internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in
debates on the floor of Congress.

Nichols writes about politics for The Nation magazine as its
Washington correspondent. He is a contributing writer for
The Progressive and In These Times and the associate editor
of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison,
Wisconsin. His articles have appeared in the New York Times,
Chicago Tribune and dozens of other newspapers.]

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Wisconsin's Elections Were a Referendum on Walker

By Matthew Rothschild

The Progressive

April 6, 2011

http://www.progressive.org/wx040611.html

We had quite an election in Wisconsin on Tuesday.

The turnout was enormous for a spring election, and all eyes
were on the state supreme court race, which pitted the
incumbent justice, conservative David Prosser, who is
closely allied with Governor Walker, against JoAnne
Kloppenburg, an old friend and neighbor of mine. She is a
wise and kind person and an experienced assistant AG, but
she had no name recognition going in.

Amazingly, the race was neck and neck all night long and
even as I speak the eventual winner is unclear and it seems
all but certain that there will be a recount.

But make no mistake: This was a referendum on Walker's
assault on working people. Kloppenburg's showing ought to
give all the protesters in Wisconsin a huge shot in the arm.
Were it not for their activism, Prosser would have slept
comfortably in his black robe on Election Night.

Kloppenburg was also helped by a competitive race in Madison
for mayor between two liberals: incumbent mayor Dave
Cieslewicz and legendary mayor Paul Soglin, who lost to
Cieslewicz eight years ago. Theirs was a contrast in styles:
Cieslewicz is more laid back, and has a wonderful, self-
deprecating sense of humor; Soglin is more intense, less
modest, but with tremendous passion for fighting poverty and
running city government. And while Cieslewicz responded
swiftly to Walker's assault on public workers, and while the
mayor skillfully renewed the union contracts before Walker's
bill could take effect, many in Madison may have felt that
they needed someone more aggressive - even more irascible -
than Mayor Dave to take on Walker, the Fitzgeralds, and the
Koch brothers. The intense face-off between Cieslewicz and
Soglin helped the turnout in Madison swell to 54 percent.

Walker should beware. Kloppenburg got a total of some
738,000 votes in the state. And it only takes 540,000
signatures on a petition to recall Walker.

I'm sure Walker and his supporters can do the math.

[Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive
magazine, which is one of the leading voices for peace and
social justice in this country. Rothschild has appeared on
Nightline, C-SPAN, The O'Reilly Factor, and NPR, and his
newspaper commentaries have run in the Chicago Tribune, the
L.A. Times, the Miami Herald, and a host of other
newspapers.

If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of
The Progressive magazine, check out his story "Walker and
Cronies Are Lawless Bastards!."
http://www.progressive.org/wx033011.html ]

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