Democrat Has Tiny Lead in Symbolic Wisconsin Election

AP
Elspeth Reeve 773 Views Apr 6, 2011

JoAnne Kloppenburg has a tiny lead of 204 votes over David Prosser in the incumbent Wisconsin state supreme court judge election widely viewed as a proxy vote over Gov. Scott Walker's push to curb union power. All precincts are reporting, but the race is so close there'll likely be a recount, Talking Points Memo's Eric Kleefeld reports. Almost 1.5 million votes were cast.

Wisconsin Democrats are gloating, Slate's Dave Weigel reports. But they're hedging their bets about how this will eventually all turn out. "This is a very significant victory," State Sen. Mark Miller said, "regardless of the outcome." His fellow Democrat Chris Larson added, "If Kloppenburg does come out on top, you're going to see a shift in tone from the Republican. Right now they're almost cocky that they're going to be victorious in the courts. I think they've been acting like cowboys because they have know they have a conservative majority if Prosser wins. Yesterday, though, you saw a very nervous [Senate GOP leader] Fitzgerald float the idea of putting the budget repair bill back in the budget and passing it again."

Prosser was projected to easily win reelection before the weeks-long standoff in Madison. Weigel writes, "If this holds, Scott Walker's political honeymoon expired on April 5, 2011, three months after he took office."

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at ereeve at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

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