Wisconsin working families won two of six recall elections yesterday, ousting incumbent state senators who backed Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Democrat Jessica King defeated Republican incumbent Randy Hopper in Senate District 18 and Democrat Jennifer Shilling (D) won over incumbent state Sen. Dan Kapanke (R) in Senate District 32. The victories narrow the Wisconsin Republican Senate majority to one.
The districts with recalls are in largely rural areas which have consistently elected Republicans–voters in one have not elected a Democrat since the late 1800s. Although Barack Obama carried Wisconsin by 14 points in 2008, no Democrat won in these disticts. A columnist for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel examined the party make-up of the districts and concluded that Democrats faced a severe disadvantage. As Craig Gilbert wrote:
Democrats are running “uphill” in five of the six elections Tuesday, trying to capture districts that are more Republican than the state as a whole in their partisan makeup.
The elections are a wake up call for every governor who thinks about giving massive new tax giveaways to the rich while cutting the benefits and rights of hard-working middle-class families and every state lawmaker who tries to ram through pro-Wall Street, anti-community legislation.
More than 12,000 volunteers mobilized for months in recall districts, contacting more than 1 million voters and knocking on 125,000 doors just over this past weekend alone. Wisconsin will go to the polls again Aug. 16, in the final set of recall elections.
One race, which pitted Republican incumbent Roberta Darling against Democrat Sandy Pasche, was not called under early this morning because the vote counting was so slow. The district is partly in Waukesha County, where vote-counting troubles surfaced earlier this year when JoAnne Kloppenburg was defeated by Republican David Prosser in a state Supreme Court race. The Waukesha county clerk has a history of vote-counting errors, and following the Supreme Court race, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel called for an investigation.
The other three Republican incumbents who held onto their seats are Walker ally state Sen. Robert Cowles (R), who survived a challenge by Nancy Nusbaum (D), incumbent state Sen. Shelia Harsdorf (R) over Sherry Moore (D) and Republican Olson over Luther Clark.
