Wisconsin Moves into Focus of Presidential Campaigns

On April 5 the Republican Party of Wisconsin will get a
glimpse of how well its voter suppression objectives
have been achieved in the first Wisconsin statewide,
presidential election that conditions the right to vote on
possessing and presenting a Republican-approved photo ID,
(Pierce, Esquire).

Projected Wisconsin April 5 Primary Turnout Expected to Exceed the 2008 Primary Turnout

Wisconsin moves into the spotlight as the April 5 partisan primaries reveal a radicalized Republican Party opposed by two wings of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW)—the progressive wing and the corporatist wing.

Steve Kornacki guest-hosting The Rachel Maddow Show Thursday led with a 13-minute segment offering a historical perspective of Wisconsin's progressive history, Robert La Follette and the statist reactionaries, (my words) such as Joe McCarthy and Scott Walker.

Kornacki interviewed Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel journalist, Mary Spicuzza about Wisconsin's surprise prominence as a potential tipping point in the presidential primary races of both major political parties in the 2015-16 election cycle.

Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board (GAB) this week predicted voter turnout for the April 5 election could be as high as 40 percent, (Beckett, Wisconsin Radio Network).

In the historic Feb. 19, 2008 primary, the turnout was 37.1 percent, according to the United States Elections Project. This figure is a couple points higher than the official Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board's figure of the 2008 Presidential Primary turnout as 34.9 percent.

Although Wisconsin is generally thought of a 'purple' state, the Republican Party of Wisconsin has veered into openly advocating the tenets of fascism the last five years.

The Democratic Party to the extent it is guided by grassroots citizens' groups still traces back a political tradition to La Follette, Milwaukee's sewer socialists, labor union activism, and a scholarship to study labor history as exemplified by University of Wisconsin economist John R. Commons in the early 20th century, (Birth of the Labor Movement, Wisconsin Historical Society).

Contra progressive citizens' movements, corporatist political forces in the Democratic Party today as embodied in U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse) and Hillary Clinton have led the DPW to abandon fundamentals of Party organizing, grassroots organizing and establishing the Party as an effective counter to the historic political successes of Scott Walker and the gerrymandered, Republican-led Wisconsin legislature, (Murphy, Urban Milwaukee).

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Republican Party's War on Voting to Reap Wisconsin Casualties on April 5

On April 5, the Republican Party of Wisconsin will get a glimpse of how well its voter suppression objectives have been achieved in the first Wisconsin statewide, presidential election that conditions the right to vote on possessing and presenting a Republican-approved photo ID, (Pierce, Esquire).

Wisconsin will hold its Spring Election and Presidential Preference Primary on April 5.

Suppressing the number of communities of color, disabled, early in-person absentee voters, low-income voters, young people, and the elderly will yield high dividends in the Fall General Election on November 8, Republicans hope.

"It's going to be much worse this November, and probably worse every other November after that until we decide that none of these things is merely accidental, and that none of these episodes is merely a clerical or administrative error. They are the result of a deliberate national campaign to restrict the franchise in new and different ways, all of which devalue our democracy, and all of them a shame to our national honor," notes Charlie Pierce.

That Wisconsin Republicans failed to fund a mandated-by-law public education campaign is just a happy coincidence for the GOP, (Smith, ProPublica). 

A long-time Election Inspector in Fitchburg, Wisconsin (Dane County) told me he would not "perpetuate a fraud" on voters by collaborating with the Republican-passed Photo Voter ID law regime which will obstruct and prevent targeted voters from casting their preference on Election Day.

The polling worker has worked elections for decades, but is finished working the polls, what he sees as a solemn, civic duty. "In-person voter-impersonation fraud is the fraud," he said.

In the 2014 federal court decision and order that halted (temporarily) implementation of Wisconsin's photo voter ID law, Republicans in the Attorney General's office, Judge Lynn Adelman notes, "could not point to a single instance of known voter impersonation occurring in Wisconsin at any time in the recent past," (p. 12).

Wisconsin typically has been near the top in voter turn-outs in general presidential elections, (2008 at 72.8) (2012 at 72.9 percent).

Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans are aware of these facts, and have worked diligently to lower turn-out, especially that 'urban' vote.

The GOP stops enough 'urban' people voting, and its candidates may win in November, though the Republican brand has become some so tainted by misconduct and incompetence, winning a statewide race is a presidential year is a difficult proposition, no matter how many election law changes Republicans have enacted to give Republicans an advantage against the Wisconsin citizenry.