In Wisconsin, a Big Recall Push Comes Up Short
Monica Davey for The New York Times:
In the end, it fell short of the outcome protesters who had marched in Wisconsin’s state capital for weeks and weeks had hoped for: Democrats managed to seize two Republican State Senate seats in recall elections on Tuesday, but fell short of the three (or more) they needed to take control of that legislative chamber.
By Wednesday, everyone was declaring victory. Democrats and labor leaders said their two recall victories were remarkable if not optimal; only two incumbent Wisconsin lawmakers had ever been thrown out before in such elections since the state began allowing them more than 80 years ago. And Republicans noted that their incumbent senators had on Tuesday won four other recall elections, meaning that Wisconsin voters had allowed them to go on controlling the State Senate, the State Assembly and the governor’s office, just as they had before the state blew up into a battleground over cuts to collective-bargaining rights earlier this year.
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On Tuesday, two Republicans — Senators Dan Kapanke of La Crosse and Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac — were removed by Democratic challengers. Until Tuesday, Republicans had dominated the Senate with a larger 19-to-14 majority, but with six recall elections in a single day, the damage for Republicans could have been far worse.
Four Republicans who held onto their jobs included Senators Robert Cowles of Green Bay, Luther Olsen of Ripon, and Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls. Vote counting dragged into the wee hours of Wednesday in a fourth race near Milwaukee, and Senator Alberta Darling, a Republican, ultimately held onto her seat.
The results of yesterday’s recall elections in Wisconsin are generally being reported narratively as a loss for the Democrats, even though they gained two seats. The truth is that Wisconsin is ideologically a mixed state, and both sides can claim both victory and defeat. Democrats gained ground in a really unprecedented recall effort, but the Republicans still hold the fort. The incessant needs to frame things in terms of winners and losers and reduce complex events to one-sentence stories are two of many silly things about politics.