It’s mercifully over. No more ads giving you nightmares about rapists and serial killers haunting your garage.
So, what did we learn from last night’s results?
Democrats were fired up and Republicans weren’t. Democrats and liberals were burning to shout NO! STOP! at Donald Trump. Trump voters showed once again that they show up only for Trump. That should be a big warning sign for the GOP going into the mid-terms. On the other hand, it’s pretty hard to make a case that a Supreme Court race in Wisconsin is important to Trump and his agenda. Yet, Republicans have to ask themselves: when an entire party is built around fealty to one man, what will happen when that man is gone?
Musk cost more votes than he bought. Musk showed up in Green Bay and spent millions because he wanted to repeat November when the Republicans were able to turn out disaffected young men (mostly). It didn’t work. In fact, on balance I think Musk’s money and his profile were a net loser for Schimel.
Schimel was classy. He accepted the results and made a gracious call to Crawford. That used to be common, but these days it counts for something. A real Trumper would never do that. I take back half the bad things I’ve said about him.
Liberal justices were an embarrassment. In contrast to how Schimel handled defeat, the four current liberal justices were embarrassing in victory. They showed up on the stage with Crawford, fists raised, as she claimed her win. So, the idea that justices would be independent and evaluate each case as individual jurists went completely out the window. There was no reason for them to be there. It sent all the wrong messages. They will vote as a block regardless of the legal merits of the case. It’s not a court, but a sorority.
Brittney Kinser couldn’t close the gap. Superintendent Jill Underly ran about 10,000 votes behind Crawford. So there was some crossover voting (including me), but Kinser needed the Court race to be razor thin for her to pull off a victory. She was a good candidate, but she just was never going to have the ability to break through the Crawford/Underly versus Schimel/Kinser dynamic.
Voter ID won easily, so Dems need to be careful. As expected, the constitutional amendment to put voter ID requirements into that document won with over 60%. Which is to say a lot of people voted for Crawford but then also voted for this. In other words, not all of the Crawford voters are hard-left liberals. If Democrats are going to carry this victory forward into future elections they have to hew to the center. Crawford knew that. She didn’t make an issue of the ID amendment at all, and she spent a lot of time accusing Schimel of not being tough enough on crime.
The tables have turned. In Florida, Republicans kept two House seats, but by margins that were 10 points less than the Republicans who won those same seats in November. Together with the results here, it’s now official: lower turnout is good for Democrats. (These were high turnout for spring and special elections, but low compared to presidential elections.) In my entire life until now Democrats always believed high turnout helped them. Now, since my party has become the party of college grads (only one in three Americans), the script has been flipped. You have to wonder why Republicans are still pursing voter suppression techniques while the Democrats still fight them.
Undeniably it was a good night for Democrats. The first really positive news for my party since November.
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Ha sorority was exactly what I thought.
They’re not even hiding it anymore. Oh well there’s a lot of not hiding it anymore isn’t there?
If Schimel had to lose I’m glad it was decisive. Will hold out hope that Crawford is able to think for herself. Who would want that job if you had to give that up?
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Well, unfortunately, on the current court six of the justices seem to want to give up independence to vote in their blocks on major cases. Only Hagedorn seems to act like a real jurist instead of a legislator.
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Dave-
I/We would be interested in your thoughts on whether Democrats should be making a bigger deal about calling tariffs taxes on low/middle income people. T talks a lot about how tariffs generate revenue and, despite his demands to business, all of the tariff costs will be passed on to consumers. In addition to the Korean small cars, it appears that Detroit’s small cars are mostly made in Mexico.
Ken Streit
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Democrats do seem to be talking about that. I think that’s good, but I doubt it’ll have much impact until people actually feel the pain of higher prices.
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“Schimel was classy. He accepted the results and made a gracious call to Crawford.”
Not only that, but he also shouted down an attendee at his watch-party who yelled out: “CHEATERS!” when it was announced Crawford won stating: “No, you have to accept the results.” Credit to Schimel where it’s due.
It was a far cry from Dan Kelly two years ago, who stated in his begrudging concession speech: “I wish I could concede to a worthy opponent, but I do not have a worthy opponent to which I can concede… My opponent is a serial liar. She’s disregarded judicial ethics; she’s demeaned her judiciary with her behavior, and this is the future that we have to look forward to in Wisconsin… I wish Wisconsin the best of luck because I think it’s going to need it.”
While Schimel’s pathetic lap-dog act to Musk and Trump during his campaign was embarrassing, at least he didn’t follow down the path of Kelly/Hovde/Trump in disgracing themselves even further after suffering electoral defeats.
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congratulations on your candidates winning, voter ID is also a winner. always the Federal courts to fall back on. but all in all it is what happened. out goes independence, and in comes the good old girl club.
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Out goes independence? The court is simply maintaining its current ideological composition.
And I’d certainly like to know what you think was so independent about the court in the past. They were simply beholden to a different set of causes and donors, like when Justice Prosser refused to recuse himself from the John Doe case in 2015 despite receiving over $3 million in support from organizations being investigated in the case – and despite potential coordination between his campaign and said donors was one of the very things being investigated in that probe.
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“You have to wonder why Republicans are still pursing voter suppression techniques while the Democrats still fight them.”
At the risk of seeming naive, Democrats seem to advocate broad political participation as a matter of principle, irrespective of transitory self-interest, Hard-line Republicans reflexively suppress the vote because their political DNA contains a few fascist genes (as expressed in their opposition to Ukraine and the Second Spanish Republic in 1936).
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I think you’re probably right about Democrats. Up until the recent era, I think you’re probably too hard on Republicans. The GOP didn’t start trying to actively suppress the vote until Walker. I don’t think Republican DNA is fascist, though I think Trump certainly is. I still hope Trump is a disease that can be shaken off at some point — not a fundamental flaw in the party’s DNA.
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