Kloppenburg

Joanne Kloppenburg has probably won a supreme court seat. If the recount confirms her lead, then she will have unseated an incumbent Supreme Court Justice, which she trailed by 20 points just 6 weeks ago.

I was at her after party tracking the ups and downs as precincts trickled in. Many polling places had a larger than usual turnout, some even ran out of ballots, which made the count slow, especially in urban areas. Early voting-which tended to favor Kloppenburg- also slowed the count I was there until 1:30am when she came out to tell us that the vote was officially too close to call, and the counting would resume in the morning.

The Kloppenburg victory, if it is upheld, is remarkable in this fete. I am a bit wary of declaring anything further, because Kloppenburg won on the "anyone but Prosser" ticket. David Prosser openly declared his support for Walker, and his intent to 'Complement' the Governor and GOP agenda. I also sincerely believe that Kloppenburg will uphold the law, and much of the actions of the current administration have been within the limits of the law.

I am absolutely sure that Prosser would be biased towards the GOP agenda. He has argued that it is not necessary for a justice to recuse themselves from cases involving campaign contributos, replacing the "if a reasonable person can see a bias" test with the "if I think I can be unbiased" test.

Kloppenburg has not won yet, even if her lead holds, it is not official until after the recount, which could take weeks. Even pulling 50% of the vote is a phenomenal accomplishment.
Prosser supporters, including the Koch-topus, outspent Kloppenburg supporters 3:2 on outside advertising. The unions and protestors were very instrumental in volunteering for Kloppenburg, however the Tea Party is also highly organized and they promoted Prosser. Both candidates took public financing, which probably prevented this from being as quite as nasty as the Gableman/Butler race a few years back.

I really think that we need to find a way to reverse Citizens' United, however that is less likely, as the Koch-topus has stretched its tentacles as far as the US Supreme Court. Open records for donors to nonprofits would also be a good step.