Thursday, July 07, 2011

On Wisconsin

I was on vacation and I missed the opportunity to comment in a timely manner about the rumored brawl between Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices David Prosser and Ann Walsh Bradley. As you may recall one of the following happened:

  1. The liberal Walsh charged the conservative Prosser with upraised fists.
  2. The conservative Prosser tried to strangle the liberal Walsh
  3. Both A & B of the above
  4. None of the above

After following current Wisconsin politics I pick C, but who knows the correct answer. Meanwhile, as the circumstances of the judicial brawl get sorted out, Wisconsin is moving on to the next phase of its political insanity -- the recall elections.  

William A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection is introduces the recall elections in his post Wisconsin isn’t over. In it he discusses the state of fund-raising for the recalls, and the post also has the schedule for the recall elections:

July 12 Democratic primaries
• Dist. 8 (incumbent Sen. Alberta Darling): Gladys Huber vs. Sandra Pasch
• Dist. 10 (incumbent Sen. Sheila Harsdorf): Shelly Moore vs. Isaac Weix
• Dist. 14 (incumbent Sen. Luther Olsen): Rol Church vs. Fred Clark
• Dist. 18 (incumbent Sen. Randy Hopper): Jessica King vs. John Buckstaff
• Dist. 32 (incumbent Sen. Dan Kapanke): James Smith vs. Jennifer Shilling
Winners will face incumbent Republicans on Aug. 9

July 19 Republican primaries
• Dist. 12 (incumbent Sen. Jim Holperin): Robert Lussow vs. Kim Simac
• Dist. 22 (incumbent Sen. Robert Wirch): Fred Ekornaas vs. Jonathan Steitz
Winners will face incumbent Democrats on Aug. 16


It is rather baffling why they don't have the elections for both the Democrats and the Republicans on the same days, but then one remembers this is Wisconsin we're talking about. Of course, scheduling them on separate days -- aside from probably costing more money -- means that they can receive dodgy and inconsistent local media coverage and the unionistas will be able to concentrate their forces more efficiently. What could go wrong?

At any rate, as I said in a comment over there, "I fear the sort of Democratic frenzy we’re seeing in Wisconsin may go national. They don’t know how to be the minority party. Hopefully that lack of grace will keep them in the minority for some time. It is not a pleasant sight."
 

3 comments:

49erDweet said...

I have it on reliable authority WIski's select dates in alternative weeks so someone is always available to milk the cows, churn the butter and process the cheese. Otherwise you think what they have now is chaos?

ambisinistral said...

Well, yea... there is that.

However, don't the bars have to be closed during elections? It strikes me that doubling the amount of bar time lost would be a tragedy of epic proportions to beer swilling Cheeseheads.

49erDweet said...

You uncannily spotted the inherent weakness in that system, but too late to do any good until a legislature can be formed to amend that rule. By the way, most of the former legislature discovered that very same weakness only moments before they became known as "self-abusing slopeheads". Go figure.