Democrats are over-stating the importance of their defeat of two Republican backed constitutional amendments in this week’s primary. It doesn’t mean everything they want to think it does, but it doesn’t mean nothing.
I honestly had no idea how that was going to turn out and I didn’t care much. I voted against the amendments, which would have given the GOP-controlled legislature power over spending federal emergency aid money, because I thought any governor would be in a better position to get emergency money out quickly as opposed to any legislature. I didn’t care that the current governor was a Democrat. I would have voted the same way if the governor were Scott Walker or Tommy Thompson.
But partisan Democrats saw this in terms of who occupied these offices now. They saw it as what it was, which was an attempt by Republicans to curtail the powers of a Democratic governor. If Walker or Thompson had been in office the Republicans would have thought the governor should have had the sole authority to spend every dime.
In any event, it was such an insider, low-profile issue that I thought the amendments might pass simply because the idea that a governor should be checked by a legislature made sense in a civics class sort of way. And had it passed, frankly, the world would not have come to an end.
What I discounted was how much the argument that this would, in fact, result in the destruction of our environment and the suffering of orphans would get out there. I saw these arguments in letters to the editor and there were some lawn signs in my liberal neighborhood. I knew the Conservation Voters and the League of Women Voters were against it. I knew the Democrats were organizing. But just because there’s a few lawn signs on Monroe Street that doesn’t necessarily say anything about what’s going on in the rest of the state.
Turns out there was a lot going on. Opponents of the amendments spent around $3 million while supporters spent only $260,000. So, when you’re outspent 12-to-one you get these kind of results. And when you add the fact that primaries for county executive and a bunch of legislative races boosted turnout in Dane County you can see how that further skewed the results.
Hence, my argument that Democrats are overplaying this.
But here’s the thing. How did Republicans and their allied groups let themselves get outspent 12-to-one? I mean this was their initiative. How could they plop it on the ballot and then just walk away? Worse, how could they open the door for Democrats to use this as training camp for the fall election? It wasn’t just a defeat for the GOP. It actually served as a gift to the other side.
So, what’s significant to me isn’t the actual results. News flash: Harris will not defeat Trump by a 57% to 43% margin. What’s significant is that the Democrats were so well organized and raised so much money while the Republicans didn’t show up for their own ballgame.
The Democrats and pundits in the know have long said that the Democrats’ ground game under Ben Wikler has been far superior to the other guys. Sure looks like it to me. And in a close race come November this could make all the difference.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
I don’t agree with you on this one, Dave. Regardless of the party in control, the very idea of changing the Wisconsin State Constitution through the referendum process is a non-starter for me. I don’t care what the issue is. Amending the State Constitution requires a formal process, with opportunity for debate and allowing time for Wisconsin citizens to acquire a thorough understanding of the issue(s) being addressed.
Also, I care deeply about any attempt by the corrupt Republican legislature to grab more power, when for at least a dozen years, they essentially ran a dictatorship in Wisconsin. The U. S. Supreme court decision to enable and even encourage massive gerrymandering gave the Republicans throughout the nation the green light that they wanted to create eternal minority rule. We’re still dealing with the fallout from that horrendous decision.
Democratic-leaning State Supreme Court Justices now are in the majority on the Wisconsin court, and if Democrats have learned anything, in the last decade, they will never, ever allow the conservatives to regain a majority.
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It’s inevitable that control of the governor’s office and the legislature will move back and forth between the parties. So, for me, this couldn’t simply be a question of Tony Evers v. Robin Vos. It had to be a question of what’s best, regardless of who controls what. I just felt that, when it comes to spending emergency money, it makes more sense to have the executive in control for the purposes of acting quickly.
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Yes, it’s about turnout. This shows that D voters are engaged and ready to turn out. There are a bunch of Ds is Milwaukee County that had essentially nothing else to vote for that day, yet lots still came out to vote against these referenda.
The disparity you cite in the spending doesn’t count the millions of dollars worth of “free” advertising that the right-wing AM radio cabal devoted to this issue. There is no equivalent to this apparatus for Ds (don’t give me the lie that the mainstream media is the equivalent for Ds. And I put free in quotes because indeed the advertisers on these stations are paying for all this propaganda to be piped in to the loyal Con’s ears day in and day out.)
At least in the WOW counties, there was hours and hours and hours devoted to getting R turnout high for this election. The hosts were hammering on this for WEEKS encouraging their listeners to vote and even early vote. Belling was hounding specific rural city clerks who weren’t making it easy enough to early vote. And for months he’s over and over stressed how critical base turnout is. So the R base does know they should vote and I bet you they did vote. But I also bet you there are simply less of them than there are base D voters.
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Thank you, Rollie, for listening to Mark Belling so that I don’t have to.
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WELL, WELL, WELL. I certainly agree with you on this one, I did not see any adds supporting the amendment. while on the other hand opposing the amendment was all over the TV. but the question I have is, IF, this was a republican governor, and democratic legislator what would YOUR OPINON be?
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I think I’ve been clear about that. I wrote that I would have voted against this (against taking power away from the governor) even if Scott Walker or Tommy Thompson were still there.
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Republicans were themselves talking about the results of the referendum questions foreshadowing the results of the November election…..as heard around the water cooler at work.
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