On To November
Walker Walks Away With Win
By CJ Ciaramella
The Washington Free Beacon
June 5, 2012 10:01 pm
http://freebeacon.com/on-to-november/
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Wisconsin Democrats and union forces lost their bid to unseat incumbent GOP Gov. Scott Walker in the state’s special recall election Tuesday, signaling an end to the political turmoil that has enveloped the Badger State for more than a year.
Walker survived the third recall of a governor in U.S. history in his defeat of Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
The results are a stinging loss for organized labor, which poured millions of dollars into the recall effort and bused in volunteers from across the country to canvass voters.
Walker benefited from an enthusiasm and money gap, outraising Barrett around seven to one. Democrats could never find a solid line of attack against him, giving voters little reason to support him over the incumbent.
Walker’s collective bargaining reforms, the impetus for the recall election, failed to catch on as a central issue in the election, and Democrats pivoted to several other lines of attack, from Walker’s jobs record to an ongoing investigation into a former Walker staff member to Walker’s so-called “war on women.”
In the final days before the election, Democrats attacked Walker for raising out-of-state money. [Oh puhleeeeeeease ... this is the lamest, most hypocritical argument these leftist two-year-olds could possibly come up with! The Democrats and the unions used bazillions of dollars from outside the state to start this whole recall fiasco in the first place! And most important of all, why should Wisconsinites care ... having millions of out-of-state dollars spent inside of Wisconsin is a boon to the people of Wisconsin, you ignorant dumbasses! 
B.]
“[Walker] became the rock star of the far right, raising millions of dollars from out of state,” Barrett said at a union rally in Kenosha on Monday. ”People of Wisconsin know it’s wrong to take that money from out of state.” [Wrong? Then why did the unions and the Democrats do the very same thing, eh? Oh ... what's "wrong" for the Republicans is perfectly okay for the Democrats, eh? B.]
“It may have helped him for a while, but in the end it’s going to be his undoing, that he was ruthless in acquiring out-of-state checks,” former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D., Wis.) told reporters at the Barrett rally. ["Ruthless"???!!! Ah, Feingold ... no wonder you got your ass beat in your last election ... you're five beers short of a six-pack. B.]
Wisconsin voters found such arguments unpersuasive. [Yeah, they found them unpersuasive because these arguments were simply downright stupid ... just like the Democrats, themselves. B.]
Voters seemed more impressed by the economic numbers Walker cited: a $154 million budget surplus when the state faced a $3.6 billion deficit before he took office; 30,000 new jobs; and a 6.7 percent unemployment rate, the lowest in almost four years.
“Tonight voters said ‘no’ to the tired, liberal ideas of yesterday and ‘yes’ to fiscal responsibility and a new direction,” said Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney as the race was called for Walker.
State Republicans rallied around the besieged governor, whose battles with organized labor have made him a national conservative hero, while independents warmed to his reforms as the state’s economy improved.
At a Walker speech Monday night, Sara, who declined to give her last name, said the governor had fired up the Republican base in a way few others have.
“I think Scott Walker opened the eyes of a lot of people, and now that they’re open, they’ll never be closed again,” she said.
Walker has been at the center of a political dogfight with national implications for almost a year and a half after he rolled back collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions and required them to pay more into their pension plans.
Those reforms closed a $3.6 billion state budget gap, but they also put a target on Walker’s back. Democrats and unions gathered nearly a million signatures to force Tuesday’s recall.
That election became the most expensive in Wisconsin history, with Republicans, Democrats, and outside groups spending more than $60 million.
With few undecided voters left in the state after a year of contentious debates, much of that money was spent on a massive get-out-the-vote effort.
The Barrett campaign said volunteers knocked on 940,000 doors and called around 880,000 voters in the days leading up to the election.
Wisconsin Republican Party spokesman Ben Sparks told Buzzfeed that Walker volunteers made 500,000 volunteer voter contacts over the weekend and four million total.
Both parties brought in national figures to stump for their respective candidates. Former president Bill Clinton appeared at a Barrett rally on Friday, urging voters to reject Walker’s “divide and conquer” politics. Long-time civil rights leader and Democrat Jesse Jackson also spoke at two events.
On the Republican side, figures such as Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey travelled to the Badger State to support Walker.
The strategy worked.
Voters from around the state turned out in droves. State elections officials predicted voter turnout of 60 to 65 percent, above 2010 levels but below presidential levels of 2008.
By the time the polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday, lines of voters had already formed, and by mid-day, many polling locations were reporting 2008-levels. The Milwaukee Election Commission brought in extra poll workers to deal with the heavy turnout.
Outside of a polling location inside Lowell Elementary School in suburban Milwaukee, librarian Diane Glisczinski manned a bake sale. The school always holds bake sales on election days, located in the library. Glisczinski said that usually she does not sell out of cookies until around 7 p.m.
“We’re practically sold out of cookies, and it’s not even the end of the school day,” she said.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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