So headlines the Washington Times.
A stand by Wisconsin Republicans against a massive effort to oust them from power could reverberate across the country as the battle over union rights and the conservative revolution heads toward the 2012 presidential race.
But the left counts it as a win:
“The fact of the matter remains that, fighting on Republican turf, we have begun the work of stopping the Scott Walker agenda,” said state Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate.
Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, said voters sent a message that there is a growing movement to reclaim the middle class.
“Let’s be clear, anyway you slice it, this is an unprecedented victory,” he said.
Something to keep in mind: While they claim they were playing on Republican turf, that wasn’t true in one of the districts, and the other district we lost regrettably featured an incumbent who had an affair with a 25 year old intern and then moved out of the district itself.
In addition, the left outspent us 2 to 1 on advertising, and the unions nationalized the elections, pushing hard for a coalition-of-government-dependent turnout.
They still lost. As “controversial” as Walker’s program was, we only lost our two most vulnerable senators.
Next Tuesday we can try to win back one of the lost seats, as two Democrats, Wirch and Holperin, themselves stand for recall.
People say Holperin is vulnerable — which he might be. This chart shows the vote in the various districts in the 2004 and 2008 elections.
In Holperin’s district, Obama got 53% to McCain’s 46%. But in 2004, Bush got 53% to Kerry’s 46% (yes, an exact flip-flop).
So he’s actually in a Bush district, and I can’t believe his district is as Democratic as it seemed in 2008.
In addition, of course, they already lost, so there will likely be a fall-off in voter interest — “Let’s keep the score close, at least!” is not a rallying cry likely to motivate a team that’s already lost.
