Go Badgers, Wisconsin at the Polls

The judicial race in Wisconsin is the first electoral test in that state after the massive protest rallies against Scott Walker's "budget repair "bill. At 10pm EST, the race between D. Prosser and JoAnne Kloppenberg is almost tied with Prosser about 1,000 votes ahead. In the last race, Prosser pulled in 55% of the vote.

To counter the organizational effort on the ground, Prosser had the Americans for Prosperity and Club of Growth and other astroturf organizations run over $1 million in ads. Prosser himself appeared on Fox this afternoon to make a last moment appeal.

The ads against Kloppenberg were classy. They accused her of wanting to take away gun rights. She was supposed to be a member of PETA and therefore would ban hunting. She was also accused of jailing an 80-year old man for not growing "organic" vegetables. Actually, she prosecuted an 80-year old man because for 12 years he kept deliberately polluting a stream and ignoring orders to desist. And as a prosecutor, she could not convict and jail. But as the Dane County Republican Club wrote,"Kloppenberg is a leftie, who likes to live with lefties. her son is a leftie activist."

What is clear is that for a race that would usually generate a 16-18% turnout,the state is mobilized. Fond Du Lac, the hometown of Randy Man Hopper, who will be recalled, ran out of ballots. Early returns from Madison were large, giving Kloppenberg a large jump early on. Throughout the day, observers noted that turnout appeared to be running from 40-50%. At 10:20pm--Prosser has opened up a 51-49% lead with only 13% of the votes counted. In the Milwaukee County executive race, Democratic candidate Chris Abele is leading 61-39% with over 25% votes counted. Politically, this was the race Democrats were aimed at because the Republican was a protege of Scott Walker.

I'll leave it at 27% of the votes counted and Prosser ahead by about 6,000. Prosser is doing about 3% points worse than last time.