recall election

On, Wisconsin!

Mark Noonan22 Comments

According to the polls, Walker will be re-elected (is that the proper term for surviving a recall?) today by the voters of Wisconsin – by 5 to 10 percentage points, depending on which poll you believe (I tend towards the higher margin of victory – not because a poll says so, but because the dynamics of the race are showing increasing GOP support and a collapse of Democrat support).  While various liberal pundits and power brokers have spent the last week or so downplaying the significance of the Wisconsin result the fact remains that the American left poured everything it had in to Wisconsin – first to try and prevent Walker’s reforms from being enacted then in an attempt to undo them, with this recall vote today just being the last gasp.   After all this effort if Walker survives, then this is the death knell for the American left.

The left, since the 1930’s, has used the government to fund the increasing power of the left.  Public sector unions are just this sort of thing on steroids – such unions lobby themselves (essentially) on whether or not government will get bigger while they also ensure that anyone who plays ball with Big Government and the left gets rewarded with wealth and/or political power.  The real reason that government never gets smaller is because the government funds (on a gigantic scale) a vast army of lobbyists who work night and day against the concept of reducing government.  As long as public sector unions have unfettered power to draw money from government workers and use it in support of those politicians who are willing to increase the power and size of government (and thus the power and size of the public sector unions, as well as other leftist groups), so will government continue to grow.   While Walker’s reforms did a lot of things the most important aspect of it was to liberate the workers of Wisconsin government from a de-facto requirement to be a member of the union.

As was reported a few days back, public sector union membership has collapsed in Wisconsin – all due to Walker’s reform which took away the union’s power to deduct dues automatically from and employees pay.  Now the unions have to rely on voluntary subscription…and the workers are showing they want nothing to do with the union.  It was this which really impelled the leadership of the left to go ballistic.  While rank and file liberals are still convinced that Walker just hates workers, the union bosses know that the real issue is whether or not workers like the union.  Events are showing that they don’t – and each person who quits the union takes one more bit of power from the union.  The power to influence elections and lobby for ever larger government is ebbing away from the unions, and thus from the overall left.

This is for the whole ball of wax.  If Walker wins, then the public sector unions are on the ropes – and it then becomes only a matter of time, given our budget crisis, that the rest of government funding for the left goes to the chopping block.  Think about this – the taxpayers provide a great deal of money for Planned Parenthood.  PP spends a great deal of money not only advancing abortion, as a cause, but also attacking Republicans in service of their cause.  Boiled down – though PP pretends to keep the funds separate – the tax dollars of pro-life Americans are being used to fund the political advancement of pro-abortion Americans.  On and on it goes through a whole host of groups…all of them leftist, all of them getting all or part of their funding from the taxpayers, all of them advancing causes which most of the taxpayers oppose.  With fear of the unions gone, more and more politicians will be willing to slaughter liberal sacred cows to balance the budget.

So, get ready first off for a lot of fun tonight – watching crestfallen liberals and making fun of their increasingly bizarre attempts to spin this as not a loss, at all.  But then watch them come blazing back on the attack, knowing that if Obama goes down to defeat, there will be nothing stopping the federal government from duplicating Walker’s efforts.

UPDATE:  So far reports indicate a very high turnout.

UPDATE II:  Still many reports of high turnout and some indications of Democrat ballot box stuffing efforts.  Drudge is saying that early exits indicate Walker by 5 – which is doubly encouraging because it appears that Democrat areas had the higher turnout early on.  It will be what it will be – and I expect Walker will win as his victory margin will be outside the Democrat “margin of fraud”.

Democrats Refuse to Admit Defeat…

Mark Noonan11 Comments

…or go within a country mile of sanity.  They’re at it again, now working on a recall effort against Governor Walker.  From Hot Air:

You’ve got to chase your dreams. Ahab had Moby Dick, Javert had Valjean, and these tools have a guy whose collective bargaining bill is a fiscal success even according to Milwaukee’s favorite newspaper.

Can we get them to flush a bunch of money down the toilet next year that might otherwise go towards reelecting Barack Obama in a crucial swing state? Yes, we can.

“‘If we can do all of this against entrenched Republicans on their own turf, imagine our success … when all of Wisconsin can have its voice heard on Gov. Walker’s extreme, divisive agenda,’ Wisconsin state party chairman Mike Tate wrote in a memo to reporters Wednesday…'”

W. C. Fields once said that if at first you don’t succeed; try, try again.  And then quit.  No sense being a damn fool about it.  Our Democrats seem determined on being the fool.

They just spent $30 million to win two State legislative seats, one of which was held by a man who got himself mired in a sex scandal.  What’s next?  $60 million to try and bounce Walker from the governorship?  Goodness, even if they did it, if the GOP controls the legislature then a Democrat governor still wouldn’t be able to undo Walker’s reforms.  Furthermore, as Walker’s reforms are starting to take hold, all of the news is good (late breaking good news for Walker probably saved one or two of the GOP seats on Tuesday) – for Wisconsin’s budget, for Wisconsin’s taxpayers, for Wisconsin’s schools…for all aspects of Wisconsin life, except for corrupt union bosses and their bought Democrat politicians.  By the time the Democrats could get a recall off the ground against Walker (I understand that under Wisconsin law they couldn’t try until some time in 2012) things might be going so well that Walker is politically bullet proof.

I do appreciate the appeal to the voters aspect of this – something all too often absent from the left.  But the purpose of recall is not just to undo every election you don’t like, but to remove from office those politicians who prove egregiously corrupt or entirely out of tune with what they ran on.  Democrats are just throwing a temper tantrum here…

But, by all means, have at it…each cent spent on a quixotic attack against Walker is one cent less Barry and the Boys will have to stave off disaster in 2012.

Recall Day in Wisconsin (Bumped)

Mark Noonan55 Comments

Forgot about that, huh?  Well our corrupt union bosses and assorted lefties didn’t – and today is the day when the long-suffering people of Wisconsin will decide if the left gets crushed or is given a mild reprieve.  If the GOP retains its Wisconsin Senate majority by even one seat, then that is a gigantic loss to the left, which has poured body and soul in to this effort.  If the GOP loses the majority, then it will be a minor set back for us and will be a tonic for the left.

It won’t, however, alter the dynamic.  This is the offest of off-year elections and, as I said, the left has been pouring it on.  Turnout will be key, and it is a complete mystery as to who will actually show up to vote.  There is some polling out there and from what I’ve read, most of it shows the GOP hanging on to the majority, with at 1 or 2 seat loss.  If, after a  massive effort, the Democrats come up short, it will demonstrate conclusively that their brand is fatally damaged, much as the GOP brand was by August of 2005…but even a win for the Dems here won’t be any sort of indicator that the left is resurgent…they will have won, by extreme effort, a narrow victory in a State long friendly to their views.

UPDATE:  Over at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey notes that Democrats have downgraded their expectations….from a “six for six” sweep to a hope to win “two or three”.  The news last night that Walker’s reforms will save Milwaukee a bag of money couldn’t have come at a worse time for liberals…essentially, the liberals of Wisconsin are fighting against that and in favor of the sort of policies which resulted in our debt downgrade.

UPDATE II:  As of 8:57 pm Pacific, the GOP has held three, the Democrats have taken two…the last race to be called will decide the Senate majority…or perhaps not; if the Democrats win tonight, they still have two up for recall next week and the GOP would have to win only one of them to regain the Senate majority if they lose it by one tonight.

At best, the left will have spent $20 million to win three State legislative seats; and a win which will in no way alter the dynamic of 2012.  Good job, lefties!

UPDATE III:  Hot Air reports that of the total votes cast tonight, the GOP has won by 52% to 48%…these same districts were carried by Obama 53% to 46%.

UPDATE IV:  Twitter reports indicate the GOP has won four of the six and thus retains Senate majority.  Not confirmed … but as Donks are already screaming voter fraud, we can call it “almost confirmed”.

UPDATE V:  From what I can tell, though the AP refuses to report it, the GOP has, indeed, won four of the six…and it would be just double extra cool if we beat the two Democrats next week.