Class Act v. the Sad Man

Scott Walker: "You've got a world driven by Madison, and a world driven by everyone else out across the state." (WSJ)

Walker's Judge lost and Walker is not happy.

Turns out "everyone" is a perverse description for our state where the Walker Judge lost 31 of the 71 non-Dane counties.

Turns out the Walker Judge lost the popular vote of the voting public across the state.

Class Act

Asst. AG JoAnne Kloppenburg ran in the face of near-constant lies backed by assorted big money liars such as the Koch brothers which massively outspent rule-of-law forces.

Throughout the barrage of lies, Kloppenburg ran on the explicit promise to serve on the top Court as an impartial judge ascertaining the law and the facts.

Kloppenburg, no natural politician, never wavered: A class act who does honor to the idea of a judicial branch of government.

Prosser the Sad Man

David Prosser squawked around the state, memorably complaining, "I feel like the victim of a drive-by shooting. Here I am, I’m walking along, I should win this race going away. But I mean, not if people aren’t thinking about what they’re doing." (NYT, April 4, 2011)

You don't vote for Prosser, you don't think. Right.

I'm sure that Prosser does feel like a victim; like he can never stand up and speak the truth.

Prosser peddled his votes on Court cases, not his impartiality and dedication to law. He trolled for company like the desperate man he is, unsure the Koch Brothers could turn around his losing campaign.

The sad man, ashamed and desperate, v. the Class Act.

As the recount begins: May the better person win.

AP Numbers: JK Wins! Sykes hits panic button

Update VII: JoAnne Kloppenburg declared victory this afternoon!!!

Update:VI: J-Klop wins; AP has all numbers in and JK lead of 204 votes. WTMJ calls it for J-Klop.

Update:V:  J-Klop lead at 206; One precinct remains: Jefferson County. MJS (Marley, Sandler and Stein) reports at 1:02 p.m.: "The Jefferson County Clerk's officer reported that Prosser picked up only 2 votes in the electronic vote in Lake Mills and that 24 handwritten ballots were not yet counted. ... "

About 220 votes were cast in Town of Lake Mills - seemingly not enough for Prosser to make up the votes he would need to defeat Kloppenburg."

Check AP for update.

Update IV: J-Klop lead at 224 votes; three precincts left

Update III: Sykes already in high damage-control mode; calls for reports of "voter irregularities."

Update II: Kloppenburg takes 309-vote lead! Five precincts left.

Update: Keep updated at AP. Twenty-four precincts left; Prosser margin at 800-plus votes. No cost for a recall with vote margin within some 7,000 votes. Still, lots of variables out there. Dunn County has posted its numbers in its two remaining precincts; AP does not have them yet but Kloppenburg will pick a few-hundred more there. See Dunn County Unofficial Election Results.

If JoAnne Kloppenburg wins the remaining 34 precincts to report (including 12 precincts in Milwaukee) by an average of 18 votes per precinct, she'll win by 20-some votes.

Thirty-two of the 34 remaining precincts are in counties Kloppenburg is winning. (Kos)

See the AP tally.

A recount seems very likely at this point.

A friend writes:

No matter the outcome at this point, we won and Scott Walker lost.

Kloppenburg came from out of no where to maybe beat a sitting Supreme Court Justice, who has the support of Koch-funded groups that spread tons of lies, massively outspending rule-of-law forces.

Too Close to Call

Recount Possible

As the state watched Dane County battle Waukesha and Washington counties (reporting suspiciously late as their turn-out was not heavy) after 11:00 P.M., Fond du Lac County was reporting 0 of 77 wards in, due to unpredicted massive turn-out that had election officials scrabbling to make new ballots.

Fond du Lac County

Fondy at approximately 11:20, and home of recall target Sen. Randy Hopper, supplied what proved to be, some three hours later, [too-close-to-call-now] margin in the race.

Kloppenburg captured 39 percent of the vote, outperforming Tom Barrett who last November won 34 percent of the vote.

Kloppenburg's losing margin in heavy-GOP Fondy is some 6,000 votes v. Barrett's 11,000.

Updated - At 09:31 pm: 50/50, Supreme Court REPORTING 32%

10:07 pm CDT Supreme Court REPORTING 55%

Joanne Kloppenburg 438,201 takes the lead.


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No Madison wards reporting yet.

Fitchburg District in Dane County Reveals Expected High Turn-on

With Madison and Dane County turn-outs skyrocketing, this time the GOP is staring at the defeat many expected in November 2010.

A working-class district (composed of traditionally lower turn-out wards) in Fitchburg had a turn-out at 17 percent by Noon, with the high-voting period to come.

The writing is on the wall.

JoAnne Kloppenburg for Victory

Thinking Northcentral Wisconsin and the Fox Valley will supply the victory margin.

MLK on Poverty in America

Believe MLK would be on the side of those who to this day who cannot walk into the capitol unobstructed.

Senate chief clerk: Fitzgeralds, Walker Admin Met Prior to Open Meeting Violation

Patrick Marley and Lee Bergquist of the MJS report:

Testimony also showed Republicans discussed forming the committee on March 7 - 48 hours before the committee met. That would have left them time to provide 24 hours' notice for the meeting, but [Senate chief clerk Rob] Marchant said he did not believe a final decision on creating the committee was made until March 9.

At the meeting were: Fitzgerald; his brother, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon); Brian Hayes, Walker's budget director; Eric Schutt, Walker's deputy chief of staff; Bob Lang, director of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau; and the chief clerks of both houses.

What is clear is that the Walker administration and the GOP legislature conspired to break Wisconsin's Open Meeting law.

See also Fitzgerald got legal advice from Walker’s legal counsel before contacting LRB to publish union-busting “law.”

One political issue that may present itself is didn't Walker and/or Fitzgeralds deny colluding on the March 9 sneak attack?

Live from Court Hearing on Collective Bargaining Injunction

An injunction would halt the GOP anti-labor bill until the end of legal proceeding of Dane County Circuit Court Case Number 2011CV001244 - Ismael R Ozanne vs. Jeff Fitzgerald et al. See also Wisconsin Court System.

ACLU recommends live blogging at:

@analieseeicher and

@news3jessica

Krugman: GOP is on the wrong side of history

GOP: We must destroy employment in order to save it.

Update: Robert Reich: The Truth About the Economy that Nobody in Washington Or on Wall Street Will Admit: We’re Heading Back Toward a Double Dip. "Republicans, for their part, worry that if they tell it like it is Americans will want government to do more rather than less. They’d rather not talk about jobs and wages, and put the focus instead on deficit reduction (or spread the lie that by reducing the deficit we’ll get more jobs and higher wages)."

Paul Krugman:

In fact, across-the-board wage cuts would almost certainly reduce, not increase, employment. Why? Because while earnings would fall, debts would not, so a general fall in wages would worsen the debt problems that are, at this point, the principal obstacle to recovery.