Wisconsin Election Update

I blogged about the Wisconsin Governor's Recall Election back at this post.  That was after the recall primary but before the election.  At the time, the roadsides in Douglas County sported only Walker and Anti-Walker signs.


But shortly thereafter, the Anti-Walker signs were replaced with Barrett signs.  They came in a couple of flavors.


The election day arrived and people turned out to vote.  Here is the polling place in Gordon.  Remember, this was White Pine territory!



The final results showed Walker retained his seat.


It took 45 minutes from the time the polls closed to announce this.  Some say the results were ready much earlier but drama was needed.


The anti-Walker folks did supply plenty of drama.  This one complained  (skip to about 1:24 if you don't want to watch the whole thing.)  This one cried.  These looked appalled. 

Apparently, Walker's victory is a minor record worthy of note.  There have been three recall elections of sitting governors.  This is the first one that the incumbent won.

Governor Walker Moves Forward

With that out of the way, the Governor could once again take on major issues in the state and he wasted no time proclaiming June 12th as Jack Link's Beef Jerkey Day.

Now how could anyone challenge a governor willing to do that?  Seriously, University of Wisconsin law professor, Ann Althouse, covered the election like a blanket.  One of her most serious concerns was wasting $18 million on a special election.  But, the election really did produced a split opinion.  Washburn county, home to Minong and Jack Link's jerkey empire produced a 57%-42% vote favoring Walker, as was the case in most rural counties.  My nearby Douglas county went 64%-35% for Barrett!  Well, they have a university.  Perhaps someone should analyze it in university versus non-university terms.

And how did it go in the 3 local townships?  Definitely a split opinion.

    

Township	Walker	Barrett	Trivedi
Gordon	169	199	3
Wascott	226	207	1
Minong	231	200	3

An election every 60 days for more than a year?  I usually complain about the fact that a half-million people pay Wisconsin property taxes with no voice in how our tax money is spent - say didn't somebody fight a war about taxation without representation?  But maybe it would just be an issue of fairness to balance the University influence with some taxpayer influence.