Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Wisconsin Recall Election

As most of you have heard the voters have spoken and reelected Gov. Walker by an eight percentage to margin. As expected the Republicans are hyping the vote as a prelude to the November presidential elections and the Democrats are down playing the vote saying it was a local election and does not reflect on national issues.

My take in the elections is that $$MONEY$$ buys elections. Consider that the Republicans raised $30.5 million to the Democrats $3.9 million and that 66% of the Republican money came from out of state compared to only 26% of the Democratic money. It is estimated that the total amount spent by both sides in the election was $63.5 million (includes PAC money). [The Dark Money Behind the Wisconsin Recall]

PAC money seems to be more evenly divided between Walker and Barrett…
Another $17 million in “independent expenditures” is being spent on anti-Barrett ads by groups associated with the Republican Governor’s Association ($9.4 million); the Wisconsin Manufacturers’ trade association ($2 million-$3 million) and Americans for Prosperity, largely funded by the energy company-owning Koch Brothers ($3 million), said Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Project.

Another $15 million in “independent expenditures” attacking Walker are being funded by national unions, McCabe said. The money coming in through independent expenditures is harder to trace, McCabe said.
[Illinois donors pouring money into Wisconsin recall election]
Because of various Supreme Court rulings we may never know the total amount on money spent or by whom for the recall elections, but I believe that money was a major factor in Gov. Walker win. Was it "the factor" in his win, no I don’t believe it was, but it helped. One of the factors that also seemed to be important in his win was that many voters didn’t believe that a disagreement over policy was grounds for a recall vote.

1 comment:

  1. Obama outspent McCain by a huge amount of money and he won. In Wisconsin they spent a huge amount of money just getting the recall which needs to be funneled into account.

    The reason a lot of money flowed to the Republican candidate was simple. Recalling someone just because you disagree with his positions and actions that was duly elected and is not guilty of anything illegal is wrong. The same kind of wrong associated with the attempt to impeach Clinton. It smells bad.

    It sends the message to both Democrats and Republicans that having the courage of your convictions will get you recalled.

    I supported Hilary but voted for Obama and I wish Obama had the courage of his convictions but he has disappointed me greatly. I wish he had the courage of his convictions but he does not.

    I do not believe I can vote for Romney in the upcoming election but right now I do not think I can vote for Obama either. I would have voted for Hilary if she had challenged Obama.

    Obama plans on a $1 billion dollar war-chest not counting his super pac support from people like Soros. In the 2008 election he outspent McCain at least 2-1 or more. Complaining about the opposition beating you at your own game is silly. The simple truth is in this case the Republican Walker was in the right, whether I like it or not, and the Democrats were not.

    The big irony of Wisconsin is once Walker made it possible for teachers to choose whether they wanted to be in a union or not the number of teacher union members dropped by over 33%.

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