Wisconsin Summer Recall Wrap-Up: Republicans Call This "Winning"

I have to admit, I was prepared to be disappointed last night. After the last wave of Wisconsin recall elections, I was ready for at least one poll to be wrong and for dems to lose at least one seat. Turns out, all my preparations were for naught -- both Jim Holperin and Bob Wirch sailed to easy and comfortable wins. I'm not going to complain.

It's important to remember the rationale behind the recalls. For Republicans, it was their support of Gov. Walker's union-busting. But for Democrats, the recalls were about leaving the state to prevent a quorum for that union-busting. Wisconsin residents were supposed to be outraged that dems had gone "fleebagger" -- by conservatives' argument, leaving the state rather than doing their jobs. So, of the two rationales, one proved weak. After the smoke had cleared, not a single Democrat had been recalled.

While losing is being cast as winning by Republicans and the punditry (the GOP keeps their senate majority, albeit barely), it's important to note that this represents a shift in reasoning; a fact that's not lost on Wisconsin native John Nichols.

Wisconsin Democrats have won the last two of nine state Senate recall elections held over the course of the summer, meaning that the opponents of Governor Scott Walker's attacks on collective-bargaining rights have prevailed in the majority of recall elections and claimed the majority of votes cast in what many saw as a statewide referendum on Walker's policies.

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Voter ID Solves Nothing

In the recall elections last night, Wisconsin Democrats came one seat short of their goal of taking the state senate from Republicans. As the night dragged on, it looked like a real possibility, but in the last hour or so, deja vu set in -- everyone was waiting for result from Waukesha County and that county's clerk, Kathy Nikolaus. At that point, the Democrat Sandy Pasch was in the lead -- by better than ten points -- and then a conservative county's results came in and turned it all around. It looked bad, given Nikolaus's recent history. The leader of the state Democratic Party issued an angry statement accusing the clerk of vote tampering, but later walked that back.

I've encapsulated that moment in history for a reason. Republicans argue that their new voter ID law, which wasn't in full effect in last night's elections, is necessary in "protecting the integrity of elections in Wisconsin." If people aren't sure that some voters are actually legally entitled to vote, then the people won't have faith in their elected officials, because they won't be sure those officials were lawfully elected. Never mind that not once in Wisconsin history has a wave of illegal voters thrown an election. Not even close.

Still, Wisconsinites have good reason to doubt the legitimacy of their elections. As Kathy Nikolaus demonstrates so well, the sheer incompetence of one county clerk can throw an election into question. Today, there are no shortage of people who believe that incumbent Alberta Darling didn't win that race and, rightly or wrongly, question the legitimacy of that election. And in all that questioning, you won't hear the words "voter fraud" once. The worry is vote tampering. And more.

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