GOP PR Operative: "No chance" Randy Hopper Survives Recall

Update: Randy Hopper (R-Empire (formerly Fond du Lac)), defeated in recall election by Democratic nominee, Oshkosh Deputy Mayor Jessica King, on August 9, 2011.

Recall Election Results
Jessica King ,   28,187  51%
Randy Hopper 26,937  49%
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Well-known (and well-liked) writer and PR specialist James Wigderson at Wigderson Library and Pub says recall target State Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) is toast.

A head faint? No.

There is no chance Hopper can win the recall election. Is he watching Weiner get roasted? Hopper’s randy behavior makes him toasted. (It’s funnier because it rhymed.)

Blogger and Republican activist Kevin Binversie has suggested Hopper resign now to give the party a fighting chance to save the seat. My only addition to that would be that the Republican Party would have to be stupid to try to save him.

Newest Fool on Voter Suppression Case: Wigderson

What happened to all the voter fraud nonsense from which our intrepid Attorney General was going to protect us?

With the great number of people casting votes that saw Wisconsin at number two in voter turnout in the nation, the GAB reports that the elections were "virtually problem-free."

Now, another rightwinger, Wigderson from Waukesha, plays the fool on the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board's (GAB) maintenance of its statewide registered voter list (SVRS) and the Van Hollen v. Government Accountability Board case.

The GAB, as it said it would, will ask for checks of SVRS against other existing databases, and it is now doing so, per its authority and responsibility and discretion.

The rightwing was right all along, say the know nothings.

Is this ignorance deliberate? It must be, no one can be that dumb.

Unless the GAB makes the database match (between the statewide voter registration list (SVRS) and the DOT, DOR and Social Security databases) a precondition to voting, it is in compliance with Wisconsin’s constitutionally protected right to establish its voter eligibility standards in accordance with existing law, as the text of Judge Sumi's decision to dismiss reads.

The text in HAVA mandates that Wisconsin takes due care to see that eligible voters are not thrown off the voter rolls. The GAB has been and is exercising that care. If it does not exercise that care, we should seek administrative and judicial remedies

For example, the GAB refused to mandate the checks on election day and force widespread provisional voting.

The GOP wanted the GAB to work on the GOP's timeframe, and to see that the checks became determinative to voting, stopping the dreaded "voter fraud." Voter fraud, that's what experts call: Bullshit.

So Attorney General Van Hollen's staff met with GOP politicos and confirmed that it would file the lawsuit.

Though Van Hollen said that the Wisconsin Attorney General was the ultimate decider on administering Wisconsin elections in this case as he sought his writ of mandamus to stop voter fraud and preserve the integrity of the election, his and the GOP's view was panned and the case was tossed.

The problem was that forcing re-registrations on Election Day would have created very long lines, confusion, generally suppressing votes. That's what Van Hollen and the GOP wanted and that's what they did not get.

So again, what happened to all the voter fraud nonsense from which our intrepid Attorney General was going to protect us? Where did voter fraud occur when the GAB was acting outside the law, as Van Hollen said it was?

Butler Defeat and Lessons Learned

Despite winning by large margins in Wisconsin's two most populous counties, Dane and Milwaukee Counties, Louis Butler lost a narrow race to to a contemptible politician who will remembered in the same muck as Joe McCarthy, Bob Kasten, and Annette Ziegler.

Lessons learned:

- Never let WMC get on the air first

- Speak clearly about what the campaign is about, as in a narrow, corrupt band of liars seeking power versus the rule of law

- Educate the public about the role of the office; it's an appellate court demanding impartiality

- Faced with money and lies, the Democrats need to sound an all hands and get public support from every Democratic official. I only heard from Herb Kohl this election.

Butler a Likely Victor over Gableman - Now a Dead Heat

10:05 - Virtual tie with 54 percent in; this will go down to the wire. Live Wisconsin Supreme Court Results.

9:52 - Supreme Court
REPORTING, 45%

Mike Gableman
213,825
51%

Louis Butler (inc)
209,060
49%

9:45 - Butler and Gableman tied. Thirty-six percent in.

Update VII (9:26): Anecdotal reports from Milwaukee are that Butler will win; even conservative commentator Charlie Sykes agrees. It will take another two hours or so for Madison and Milwaukee to report in.

Update VI (8:09): Polls have closed. In our local polling place, Louis Butler has three times the number of votes as Michael Gableman (337 to 137). And Matt Veldran, the liberal in a local Dane County board race has a healthy margin over right-wing Dave Glomp (247 to 193). Veldran wins big.

Update V (3:53): WiscPolitics reports: "In the Republican stronghold of Waukesha, 'the poll workers are waiting for people to show up,' according to deputy clerk Marie Bieber. Waukesha is a populous county that usually gives Republicans an edge near the edge Dane County gives Democrats.

Update IV (2:31): The consensus among a representative group of liberal attorneys in Milwaukee is: "... Bulter will win b/c Gableman was just so outrageous with his malicious attacks."

Update III (2:26): WiscPolitics reports Madison and Milwaukee turning out as expected (pointing to slightly higher-than-the-state-at-large). However, in Madison, most of student turnout typically comes after 3:00 local time, with students sneaking in to vote after and in between classes. Bottom line, Dane and Milwaukee will lead the state in turnout, and Dane and Milwaukee will go heavily for Butler.

Update III (2:07): In Milwaukee, Pedro Colon's (running for City Atty) people hit the high-turnout wards big. His opponent, incumbent Grant Langley, is also a Democrat (a do-nothing Democrat), but the campaigns will help turnout for Butler.

Update II (1:57): Conversation with Dane County Clerk's office just now points to a higher-than-statewide turnout, but not significantly higher. Nothing like the Obama-Hillary February 19 primary turnout.

Update: A ward in Middleton, WI in Dane County reports brisk turn-out at 8:00, an hour after polls opened. Middleton is a largely affluent, professional bedroom community next to Madison. There is a targeted County Board race in Middleton today.

With only some 20 percent of the Wisconsin electorate likely to go the polls, high turn-out Dane (Madison) County and populous Milwaukee County can be expected to leave a big footprint in statewide election results.

That spells trouble for the Republicans in the state Supreme Court race.

The Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC)-anointed empty suit, Michael Gableman, will likely be clobbered because of his despicable racist campaign that has revealed Gableman as lacking the intelligence, even a pedestrian comprehension of the role of the state's highest appellate court, and the ethics to sit on the Court as an impartial judge.

Even Wigderson's Library & Pub, a rightwing blog in Waukesha, predicts a Butler win of 55%-45%.

The fetid politics of cynicism are on the run.