Curmudgeon's Corner

Roller Coaster Indeed!

Posted by Al Campbell on April 8, 2011

Wisconsin, Political

My blog on April 6^th was titled ‘Roller Coaster Ride’ and little did I know how prophetic that title might be.

The revelation yesterday afternoon by the County Clerk for Waukesha County that Brookfield’s votes had been missed due to an error she apparently made in saving data to an Access database file was quite a surprise.

To the Clerk’s credit, she stepped up and took the heat.  Remember that she was taken to task by members of the County Board for insisting on using her computer to house the data rather than a different system.  So this was particularly embarrassing for her on that count in addition to making her the focal point of a very important statewide race that had a small margin of ‘apparent’ victory on Wednesday.

Also standing tall is the Democrat who stepped up and said she was involved and that she affirmed the new count was correct.

The result appears to be that Justice Prosser has a lead of some 7,500 to 8,000 votes at this point.  That would seem to, at least temporarily, quash the far-too-early declaration of victory by his opponent who was in the lead by some 204 votes before the actual canvassing had even begun.

Talking heads are now surmising that there simply won’t be sufficient changes found necessary in the canvassing to tip the scale in the other direction.  Given my slant, I certainly hope that Justice Prosser will prevail.  It is apparent that much, if not all, of the legislation attempted in the coming months and years will be subjected to litigation in the attempt to slow that legislation or to kill it.

I expect that a recount will be requested by whichever candidate ends up on the losing side of the count, and that is quite appropriate; the laws provide for that when races are decided by narrow margins.  There was not, in my opinion, ever much doubt that this race was the surrogate for re-running the gubernatorial race that saw Governor Walker win the seat.

We had the election for governor, and Scott Walker won that election whether or not he was the candidate you favored.  Recall campaigns may or may not change the make-up of the legislature.  Those are fine, too, even though I suspect that maybe only one or two changes, if that many, will occur.   That will not be sufficient to change the majority in the state Senate.

Roller coaster indeed!