Wisconsin Recall Elections

Primary Recall

101
11 months ago
by Michael Weiss in , ,

Today we have two elec­tions of sig­nif­i­cance. Cal­i­for­nia is hold­ing its pri­maries, and Wis­con­sin is hold­ing recall elec­tions for the Gov­er­nor and four state Senators.

In Cal­i­for­nia, the selec­tions for Pres­i­dent are fore­gone con­clu­sions, and decid­edly unin­ter­est­ing, but there are two other state bal­lot items, and one local, wor­thy of examination.

First up is the Class 1 Sen­ate seat, cur­rently occu­pied by Demo­c­ra­tic Sen­a­tor Dianne Fein­stein. There’s no seri­ous like­li­hood that she will lose today, but this is the first elec­tion in Cal­i­for­nia in which the two Sen­ate can­di­dates with the most votes, regard­less of party, will face each other in Novem­ber. (more…)

Final (?) Recall: Wisconsin, August 16

26
1 year ago
by dcpetterson in ,

The last two of Wisconsin’s his­toric series of nine recall elec­tions hap­pens today. Incum­bent Democ­rats Jim Holperin of Conover and Robert Wirch of Pleas­ant Prairie will be defend­ing their seats against Repub­li­can chal­lengers Kim Simac and Jonathan Seitz, respectively.

These final two elec­tions seem anti­cli­mac­tic after Democ­rats failed to win a major­ity in the Wis­con­sin state sen­ate a week ago. The stakes are real, though. Most obvi­ously, Democ­rats picked up two seats on August 9, putting them in a much bet­ter posi­tion to influ­ence leg­is­la­tion. Today presents a chance for the Repub­li­cans to regain some lost ground.

It is also a pos­si­ble test of remain­ing inter­est and enthu­si­asm, in an ongo­ing bat­tle with national reper­cus­sions. Wis­con­sin has been seen as a test of the rel­a­tive strengths of America’s two major par­ties in the months lead­ing up to next year’s all-​​important Con­gres­sional, Sen­ate, and Pres­i­den­tial elec­tions. Wis­con­sin vot­ers, in anger at Repub­li­can over­reach as exem­pli­fied in the arro­gance of Wisconsin’s new union-​​busting laws, sparked a tidal wave of recalls against six Repub­li­can state Sen­a­tors, a wave answered by a back­wash directed toward three Demo­c­ra­tic coun­ter­parts. This is echoed nation­ally, as the pop­u­lar­ity of Con­gres­sional Repub­li­cans has taken a nose­dive, exceed­ing a smaller but also sig­nif­i­cant decline in approval of Con­gres­sional Democ­rats. (more…)

The Rebellion Begins

24
1 year ago
by dcpetterson in

A revolt against the 2010 elec­tions has begun.

Jennifer Shilling

Jen­nifer Shilling

The Wis­con­sin recall elec­tions rocked the nation yes­ter­day. Well, six of them. One other occurred weeks ago (the Demo­c­rat won), two more pro-​​forma Demo­c­ra­tic recalls will be held next week. But the ones that could have changed the bal­ance of power in the Wis­con­sin State Sen­ate were held yesterday.

It was a his­toric moment. Never before in Amer­i­can his­tory have six recall elec­tions been man­dated at the same time. This, by itself, is an indi­ca­tion of how unhappy vot­ers are now with the results of the 2010 elec­tions. In the last cen­tury, there have been only 20 recall elec­tions for state leg­is­la­tors, total. Until now. Sud­denly, there are nine more, in a sin­gle state — Wis­con­sin. (more…)

Wisconsin August 9 Recall Liveblog

70
1 year ago
by Logarchism.com in ,

This is where we are live blog­ging the results of today’s Wis­con­sin recall elec­tions. Results and high level com­men­tary appear here, but we’ll all join in the com­ments below as well.

(more…)

Can Wisconsin Recall?

33
1 year ago
by dcpetterson in

It’s on. This is the real thing.

Great Seal of the state of Wisconsin

Image via Wikipedia

The eyes of the nation turn to Wis­con­sin today. The recall elec­tions can be seen as a presage of next year’s national con­tests. They are a ref­er­en­dum on the Repub­li­can gov­er­nance not only of states, but in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. They are a test of the new pol­i­tics under the Cit­i­zens United deci­sion. They are a bat­tle between the mus­cle of the Tea Party and the ide­al­ism of the New Deal, between con­ser­v­a­tive ide­ol­ogy and what’s left of labor unions in Amer­ica. Turnout will be the key, so it is a con­test too between the enthu­si­asm of the right from 2010, and that of the newly reën­er­gized left.

If Democ­rats win three out of these six con­tests, they will gain con­trol of the Wis­con­sin state sen­ate.

(more…)

Wisconsin Recall Election August 9

3
1 year ago
by Monotreme in ,

State Sen­a­tor Dan Kapanke (WI-​​32)

Tomor­row, Wis­con­sin vot­ers in a few selected State Sen­ate dis­tricts will head to the polls yet again, this time to vote in the first round of actual recall elec­tions, which may tip the bal­ance in favor of the Democ­rats in the State Sen­ate. Two Sen­ate Democ­rats will face their recall elec­tions on August 16.

The Wis­con­sin State Sen­ate is cur­rently con­trolled by Repub­li­cans, who have a 19–14 advan­tage. If the Democ­rats can man­age to replace three Repub­li­cans, this will flip to a 17–16 Demo­c­ra­tic major­ity. Two of the races appear to be walk­a­ways for the Democ­rats (see below), so the Democ­rats would only need to take one of the remain­ing four races, all of which are competitive.

Both Democ­rats and Repub­li­cans agree: turnout will be crit­i­cal. Since a midyear recall elec­tion of this mag­ni­tude with $18 mil­lion in cam­paign spend­ing is a first for any state, no one can hon­estly pre­dict what will happen.

State Sen­a­tor and Man-​​About-​​Town Randy Hop­per (WI-​​18)

Spend­ing, espe­cially by out­side groups, has been phe­nom­e­nal — on just eight Sen­ate seats, the spend­ing has been about five times the total amount spent on all the state Sen­ate and Assem­bly races last year.

The Rothen­berg Polit­i­cal Report has a well-​​written and suc­cinct run­down of the races, and Chris Bow­ers of the Daily Kos has polling num­bers. If you pre­fer your news from the right side of the aisle, the Weekly Standard’s polit­i­cal blog also has a syn­op­sis of the races. Read­ing between the lines, it seems to me that the Democ­rats are guard­edly opti­mistic and the Repub­li­cans are freaked out.

After the jump, I’ve given a brief run­down of each race, order­ing them from the most– to least-​​likely to flip Demo­c­ra­tic, based on polling data and news reports.

(more…)

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