https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/437385-gop-base-wakes-up-in-wisconsin
Special election in April after midterms... bad for the Wisconsin justice system but to spin this as a defeat is off base.
Reading the turnout numbers, I think I disagree.
Much of the analysis isn’t considering the context.
Judicial election in an off year special election. GOP bread and butter.
What is the GOP electoral promise? They promise to cut taxes, appoint judges and implement policies to hurt the people you hate because even if you’re suffering now you’ll be raptured to paradise.
Controlling judiciary is how they promise to remain in control even when they get voted out of office.
To them it is a real big fucking deal and they poured a lot of resources into the beet red counties and increased their turnout to squeak out a maybe recount?
This might not be over just yet...
It might not be over, for sure.
But my point is that both the Dems and the GOP saw increases in voting for this Spring special election, not the usual miniscule voter pool.
That's why I don't think this event can be discounted.
You’re right. It cannot be discounted. The Democrat almost prevailed in a race where the judiciary is not part of the be all to end all of the foremost concerns of folks in Milwaukee and that is unfortunate. When I was trying to convince friends in 2016 I would plead, “vote for the Supreme Court!” Um.
This is bad for Wisconsin on a local level... on a national level? Not so much.
Quite the contrary. The state GOP was meek in support of its candidate who was labeled anti-gay, etc. It took a lot of work by outside groups to inform voters of the similarity of the democrat smear of Brett Kavanaugh to the the Wisconsin judicial contest.
The left vilified GOP candidate Brian Hagedorn for giving speeches to the “hate group” Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Colorado’s cake-baker in a winning appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Liberals also dug up poorly-phrased comments he made about same-sex marriage while in law school. It should be noted that the " hate group" designation came from the Southern Poverty Law Center who now stands exposed as sexist demagogues after firing its founder and and Director amid sexual harassment attribute to its senior staff.
Targeted mailings by groups outside Wisconsin had a simple message:
“They did it against Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh,. Now, the same radical out-of-state special interest groups that are spending millions pushing Liberal Lisa Neubauer are spreading false attacks against conservative, rule of law Judge Brian Hagedorn.”