State elections officials on Monday certified the results of the recount of the April 5 election for state Supreme Court, declaring that Justice David Prosser has been re-elected to another 10-year term on the court by 7,004 votes.
"I look forward to taking the oath of office and continuing to serve in a fair and independent manner as a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court," Prosser said a statement.
Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg asked for the recount after narrowly losing to Prosser.
She now has the option of suing over the results if she wants to contest the election. Any legal action must be started by May 31.
Kloppenburg campaign manager Melissa Mulliken last week said Kloppenburg would spend the coming days deciding what to do. Kloppenburg has portrayed the election as including widespread anomalies.
In certifying the recount, Government Accountability Board Chairman Thomas Barland disputed that characterization.
“It was not a surprise that minor mistakes were discovered, investigated and corrected,” he said. “This happens in all elections.”
It's time to pull out the JoAnne "I'm Ecstatic" Kloppenburg victory speech.
Kloppenburg's decision to declare victory was one of the worst moves ever.
It showed she lacks any sense of good judgment and possesses no gravitas whatsoever.
Now, with the certified results of the recount essentially the same as the certified results of the election, Kloppenburg has another decision to make.
Will she and her allies continue to stick it to the taxpayers and drag down the state of Wisconsin?
Will she obstruct the will of the people?
Does Kloppenburg have the decency to finally concede?
If her past behavior is any indication, then no, she won't concede.
It will be beyond disgraceful if Kloppenburg sues, in effect attempting to disenfranchise over 7,000 voters in the hope of manufacturing a victory.
Bottom line: Kloppenburg's concession speech is long, long overdue.
If she won't concede, let's hope she's clueless enough to flee the state, thinking that would be an appropriate way to handle her defeat. _________________
STATEMENT OF SUPREME COURT JUSTICE DAVID PROSSER, JR:
"I am grateful that the final results of the April 5th election have been confirmed today. I want to thank the good people of Wisconsin for their confidence in me. I look forward to taking the oath of office and continuing to serve in a fair and independent manner as a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
I also want to thank the literally hundreds of local election officials and volunteers across the state's 72 counties who spent thousands of hours of their time in this recount. Their dedication went well beyond their normal "call of duty" and I know the state's residents who they serve share my appreciation for their great efforts in producing an accurate final result."
Will Kloppenburg challenge the "accurate final result"?
The Assembly late Wednesday approved requiring people to show photo ID at the polls, putting the measure on a fast track to becoming law. The Senate is expected to sign off on the plan Tuesday.
The move comes when drivers are about to have to present more documentation to get their licenses and wait longer to get them.
The Assembly passed the bill 60-35 amid shouts from a small group of protesters in the viewing gallery.
"Welcome to Wisconsin, Jim Crow!" one of them shouted. The Republican-run Assembly quickly adjourned as the protesters chanted "Shame!" and were led out of the gallery by police officers.
Democrats Peggy Krusick of Milwaukee and Tony Staskunas of West Allis joined all Republicans in approving the bill.
In a change that's separate from the photo ID legislation, drivers will soon have to present more documents proving their identity to get licenses under a federal anti-terrorism law. And instead of receiving their licenses when they visit a Division of Motor Vehicles office, they will get them a week to 10 days later in the mail.
Gov. Scott Walker is a longtime supporter of requiring photo ID to vote. His fellow Republicans have pushed the idea for a decade but have been blocked by Democrats.
...On the Assembly floor Wednesday, Republicans argued that requiring ID at the polls would prevent voter fraud and boost confidence in elections.
"That is a travesty to have your vote stolen from you," said Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon).
Democrats said the measure would have no effect on voter fraud while making it harder for poor, elderly, minority and rural residents to vote. They said that no widespread voter fraud has ever been uncovered in Wisconsin.
Finally!
The Democrats are powerless to block the effort to make voter fraud more difficult at polling places in Wisconsin.
They will be forced to use other routes, like frivolous recounts and inventing anomalies, to disenfranchise Wisconsinites.
The Democrats will have to revise their playbook.
Isn't it funny Dems "said that no widespread voter fraud has ever been uncovered in Wisconsin"?
That's exactly what they intend to claim has taken place in Waukesha County in the Supreme Court race.
JoAnne "I'm ecstatic" Kloppenburg has wasted the taxpayers' money by dragging Wisconsin through a ridiculous recount. It was a selfish act.
The woman did not have the good judgment nor the strength of character to stand up to the Democrats and her union allies and refuse to participate in this senseless, joke of a recount.
With the recount in the April 5 Supreme Court race now complete in every county but Waukesha, JoAnne Kloppenburg has sliced a mere 355 votes off Justice David Prosser's lead of 7,316 votes, underscoring the extreme odds against Kloppenburg emerging victorious in the fiercely contested judicial contest.
In effect, Kloppenburg would have to gain 6,962 votes in one county - Waukesha - after gaining a tiny fraction of that in the recount of all the state's other counties.
In those 71 counties recounted so far, Kloppenburg has made a net pick-up of one vote for every 3,873 votes cast.
In Waukesha County, which Prosser won overwhelmingly, she would have to make a net pick-up of one vote for every 18 votes cast.
And that math actually understates the improbability of a successful outcome for Kloppenburg because about 30% of Waukesha County has already completed the recount process. So far, there's a net gain of 18 votes for Prosser, according to the latest figures posted Monday night by the state's Government Accountability Board.
As for the Waukesha recount changing the outcome at this point, "the probability is not close to zero - it is zero," said Ken Mayer, a University of Wisconsin political scientist who is a consultant to the Prosser recount team. "It just isn't going to happen."
The Kloppenburg campaign said Monday that judgment is premature.
Oh, good Lord!
This is insane.
JOANNE KLOPPENBURG LOST. JUSTICE DAVID PROSSER WON.
I wonder what Kloppenburg's concession speech will be like.
She can't concede with grace. That possibility went out the window when she made taxpayers' foot the bill for her utterly pointless recount. Her accusations of "anomalies" and "irregularities" couldn't be sleazier.
"I get the math," said Melissa Mulliken, who ran Kloppenburg's campaign. But she said the Kloppenburg campaign believes there are enough serious questions about the way ballots were handled - she called them "significant anomalies" - that it will make a decision after the recount is over about whether to pursue a legal appeal.
...[Prosser attorney Daniel] Kelly said he was concerned Kloppenburg would challenge the results no matter what, leading to months of appeals. Prosser's seat on the court will become temporarily vacant if a winner isn't declared by Aug. 1. There are six other justices on the court, and they are often evenly split over the most contentious issues.
Kloppenburg said it was premature to say whether she would challenge the results of the recount in court.
"Premature"?
I will be so pissed if Kloppenburg appeals the results. I am preparing to be pissed.
THAT IS NOT WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE.
Imagine the news conference when Kloppenburg announces she will appeal. Picture her at a podium crowded with microphones. Can you see her face and hear her voice as she says she will not give up AGAIN?
Oh, my God!
Although I'm sure Democrats and union bosses are pulling puppet Kloppenburg's strings, I still blame her for this waste. SHE is responsible for the circus. SHE showed terrible judgment. SHE lacks decency. SHE is not wise.
It does prove Wisconsin voters made the right choice. Without a shadow of a doubt, Kloppenburg is not fit to sit on the State Supreme Court.
Kenneth R. Mayer, PhD., professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a consultant to the Justice David Prosser Recount Team, writes that it's time for JoAnne "I'm ecstatic" Kloppenburg to put an end to the recount.
The recount is nearing completion in the contested Wisconsin Supreme Court election between incumbent David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg. The initial canvas showed Prosser ahead by 7,316 votes, out of nearly 1.5 million cast. More than three-quarters of the state has completed its recount, and the net change has been only 225 in Kloppenburg’s favor, using data compiled by the Prosser campaign. The GAB’s own data shows that with nearly 80% of the vote recounted, Prosser is ahead by more than 25,000 votes. It is time to recognize that there is no point in continuing.
It has actually been clear from the beginning that the recount would not change the result: Prosser’s lead in the initial count was 30 times larger than any margin that had been reversed in any statewide election that I have been able to find in the last 30 years. The initial margins in the 2004 Washington Gubernatorial Election and the 2008 Minnesota Senate election – both of which were reversed after a recount and litigation – were, respectively, 261 votes and 215 votes. Every statistical model of recounts has concluded that the chances of a reversal depends, more than anything, on the margin of victory. Absent the kind of irregularities that simply have not happened in this election, a reversal of a 7,000+ margin would be historically unprecedented.
There are, so far, a handful of wards (what Wisconsin calls precincts) that have produced anomalous changes: one ward where Kloppenburg picked up 67 votes because of an omission in the initial count; one town where the absentee ballots of 18 cloistered nuns were tossed because they were not properly witnessed; one ward where 79 ballots were accidentally left in a clerk’s office; one ward where Prosser picked up 15 votes when the original totals for both candidates were adjusted.
But nearly all of the wards – more than 70% --show either no change at all or a net change of 1 vote or less – more than 90%. It is simply not possible for Kloppenburg to pick up enough votes to change the result. The average change has been about 0.1 votes per ward. Again, this has been clear from the beginning, but with more than three-quarters of the votes recounted, the possibilities are so remote that a reversal, by itself, could be evidence of a significant irregularity.
As of today, Kloppenburg would have to reverse more than 7,000 of the remaining votes to win. This is a rate hundreds of times greater than the error rate so far, which has been steady at about 1 change per 4,000 votes.
Kloppenburg may be pinning her hopes on challenging votes from the City of Brookfield, where a failure to report 15,000 votes on election night led to an initial (and wholly unofficial) Associated Press calculation that Kloppenburg had won by 204 votes. She held a press conference where she declared victory. But there was in fact no real anomaly here: it was simply a human error in which vote totals were not conveyed to the county election official on election night. Once the votes were reported, and counted, it was clear that the AP report was simply an error. To claim fraud here would be an impossible stretch, elevating press reports to an official status that they do not, and cannot, have.
Kloppenburg asked for a recount because she said it was important to have confidence in the electoral process. What the recount process has shown is that the election process in Wisconsin, for all of the potential for human error, is extremely accurate.
And the advantage of stopping the recount now, is that we can go back to making jokes about elections in Illinois.
The recount for the state Supreme Court race has come to this: Votes from nuns have been thrown out.
The twist in the race between Justice David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg came during the recount in Sauk County. There, ballots of Cistercian nuns from the Valley of Our Lady Monastery in Prairie du Sac were rejected.
The nuns live a contemplative, monastic life and support themselves by baking and distributing altar breads, according to their website.
On Friday, during the recount, it was noted that witness signatures were missing from 18 absentee ballots from the Town of Sumpter, where votes from the monastery are counted.
"Eighteen applications did not have a witness signature," said Alene Bolin, assistant corporation counsel for Sauk County. "I don't think all 18 were from the monastery. I think it has turned into, there were 18 nuns but I do remember one of the ballots was not from the convent."
"They're cloistered nuns," Bolin said. "So the clerk (Donna Ziegler) dropped off an envelope with all the absentee ballots and applications with them. On the day of the election, she picked them up and dropped them off at the polling place. The absentee ballots were opened there and counted. During the recount it was discovered that there was no witness signature."
Because canvassers were unable to match the actual ballots to the voter, they took all 24 absentee ballots from the Town of Sumpter and randomly drew 18, which were then set aside and not counted. Of those ballots, Prosser had 14 while Kloppenburg had four.
The Prosser campaign made two appeals to have the ballots counted, including early Wednesday, but they were turned down by the board of canvassers, Bolin said.
Will tossing the votes of the nuns change the outcome of the election?
No, but that's not the point.
Considering the Democrats are always yapping about counting every vote and insisting that measures like voter photo ID are an unreasonable burden it looks horrible for them to reject the votes of the cloistered nuns.
Does Kloppenburg really want to be remembered for throwing out the nuns' votes?
I suppose it could be worse. I assume the nuns weren't harassed or threatened by Kloppenburg's allies, the union thugs. Their ballots were discarded but no physical intimidation took place.
The case of the Cistercian nuns from the Valley of Our Lady Monastery in Prairie du Sac is just another proud moment for JoAnne "I'm ecstatic" Kloppenburg.
Isn't it great our tax dollars are being spent to toss out the ballots of nuns in this idiotic recount?
Wonderful. ________________
UPDATE:
Statement of Brian Schimming, director, Justice Prosser's Recount Effort, regarding the disenfranchisement of votes of 18 nuns from the Valley of our Lady Monastery in Prairie du Sac, Sauk County:
"While we have been reluctant to make public comments during the recount period, the Kloppenburg campaign's attack on the votes of 18 nuns from the Valley of our Lady Monastery in Prairie du Sac is wrong at best and totally reprehensible at worst.
"This recount is costing Wisconsin taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars already. There is to date not one shred of evidence whatsoever that it will change the outcome of the election. To make this extremely costly and sorry spectacle even worse by challenging the legitimate votes of 18 nuns at a monastery is a breathtaking abuse of the recount process."
"I would simply ask Ms. Kloppenburg to act at the most basic level of decency; apologize to the 18 nuns who reside at the monastery for her campaign's interference with their right to vote, withdraw her objection and ask that the ballots be reinstated."
It's a legitimate and appropriate request.
Unfortunately, to date, Kloppenburg has not exhibited the character or the class that would lead me to believe she will do the right thing.
The MacIver Institute offers this chart of "Vote Changes in Statewide Recounts in the United States Since 1980 and Margin in Prosser v. Kloppenburg 2011."
What is JoAnne Kloppenburg thinking?
She and her union allies certainly can't think this joke of a recount is going to endear the Leftists' agenda to Wisconsin taxpayers.
What a massive waste of resources!
This recount is so outrageous that the classless Kloppenburg joins Brett Favre in becoming a verb.
When lead character Cleveland Brown, a baseball star when he was in high school, gives his retired #9 jersey to his son, Cleveland Jr., the elder Cleveland takes a shot at Brett Favre.
CLEVELAND BROWN JR.: Wow! Number 9! I thought when you left they retired it for good.
CLEVELAND BROWN: I'm Brett Favre-ing it, except I'm not being a public jag off about it.
It took Favre years to become a verb, going in and out of retirement repeatedly.
Kloppenburg managed to achieve that level of notoriety in just weeks. Quite an accomplishment.
During JoAnne Kloppenburg's press conference last Wednesday, she accused Justice David Prosser of meeting with Governor Scott Walker after the April 5, 2011, Supreme Court election.
According to Media Trackers, that may violate the Judicial Code of Conduct.
Kloppenburg made the allegation during her press conference to announce her intention for a state-wide recount, but she provided no evidence to back it up. Both Walker and Prosser deny the meeting took place.
Kloppenburg’s campaign spokeswoman, Melissa Mulliken, said she had “been in touch with two or three people with knowledge of the meeting.” However, she refused to name names.
The irony is rich. During the campaign leading up to this election the news media and the Left continued to draw focus on the 2008 controversy around Justice Michael Gableman for what was at worst a misleading campaign ad written by campaign staffers. But Kloppenburg campaign’s apparent overt factual falsehood received scant media attention, and no one seems to be raising the question of whether Kloppenburg violated judicial rules.
...Is Kloppenburg still a judicial candidate? By requesting a recount she maintains that status.
Prosser outright denies her assertion that he met with Walker, as does Walker.
Kloppenburg has not repudiated the claim, nor provided evidence to prove it.
So how does the SRC 60.06(3) not apply?
It begs the question of why the Judicial Commission is not investigating the Kloppenburg matter. Where is the media? Where are the complaints? Where is the scrutiny?
Here's the full video of JoAnne Kloppenburg's statement announcing her decision to request that the taxpayers of Wisconsin pay for a recount in her failed election bid against Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser.
JoAnne Kloppenburg certainly had the right to ask for a statewide recount on Wednesday.
But we had hoped that she wouldn't - and the state would be better off if she hadn't.
We understand the motivation. The final county-by-county canvassing of the state Supreme Court election revealed that Justice David Prosser won a narrow victory, a reflection of how polarizing the new governor and his policies have become. The heat generated by the controversy over those policies most likely spurred the significant turnout for a spring nonpartisan election and a 7,316-vote win for Prosser - less than 0.5% of the 1.5 million votes cast.
That's slim, but it's not likely that a statewide recount will change the outcome. Were it a margin in the hundreds of votes, perhaps, but Kloppenburg has to recognize that it's not.
The state Government Accountability Board says it is ready for a recount; the board had anticipated that one would be requested. But it is already requesting some $40,000 extra to deal with a possible 16 recall elections anticipated as a result of some senators leaving the state to avoid a vote on Gov. Scott Walker's collective bargaining proposals and other senators voting for them.
Earlier, the GAB said a statewide recount in the Supreme Court race might cost as much as $1 million. Given that the state is already scrambling in its current budget to make ends meet and that the next budget won't be any prettier, this is an expense the state can ill afford.
...Kloppenburg might have simply narrowed her recount request to Waukesha County.
But, again, this is her right. We urge the GAB to conduct the recount openly, transparently and in such a fashion that there is no room for doubt. And we urge all the parties involved to allow the GAB to do its job efficiently and without undue interference.
Kloppenburg's decision to burden the state with the cost of what the Journal Sentinel calls an "unnecessary" recount, meaning the Democrats/unions' decision to burden the taxpayers, is utterly irresponsible.
Think of all the ways that money could be better spent.
Kloppenburg's incredibly poor judgment is on display.
It was there when she made her laughable victory speech. Here it is again.
It's unfortunate that Kloppenburg doesn't have the strength of character and the decency to do the right thing.
Having the right to do something doesn't make it right.
Taxpayers of Wisconsin, please join me in a resounding "SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!"
JoAnne Kloppenburg will call for a STATEWIDE RECOUNT.
The Wisconsin taxpayers DO NOT thank you, Kloppenburg.
What a waste of resources!
Kloppenburg is a union puppet. And we know the unions don't care about Wisconsin's taxpayers.
She's either spineless and doing the bidding of the unions, or she's utterly irrational and out of touch with reality.
"Today my campaign is asking the Government Accountablity Board to conduct a statewide recount."
Disgusting.
"A recount benefits everyone involved in this election."
WHAT?
It sure as hell doesn't benefit the taxpayers!
7,316 votes! That's a huge margin.
Dragging the taxpayers through this makes me sick.
Kloppenburg yapping about fraud is a joke. Leftists have done all they can to permit voter fraud in Wisconsin.
Long lines at the polls, photocopied ballots, blah, blah, blah.
When Kloppenburg was asked if she still felt that she won the election, she paused for a long time. She finally said she felt like a winner in a number of ways. Really lame.
Video.
Transcript
REPORTER: Last time you had a press conference, you indicated you were the winner. Do you still feel that you are the winner of the election?
KLOPPENBURG: (15-second pause, staring off into space) How I feel? I feel that I have, um, been a winner in any number of ways. Whether I will have earned the most votes in this election is something to be determined by the recount.
What a disgrace! Truly a disgrace!
Kloppenburg could not have handled her response to that question more awkwardly.
Her supporters had to be thinking, "This is uncomfortable."
Kloppenburg said when she was ahead by a couple hundred votes, her opponent's campaign cried "voter fraud!" She said she has never suggested there was fraud.
Then why have a special investigation? Of course, she's talking about fraud.
The woman contradicts herself within the same news conference.
This is just pissing away tax dollars.
If the unions and the Leftists are looking for a way to fire up the taxpayers of Wisconsin, they've found it.
Wisconsin continues to receive the national spotlight.
Brett Healy of the MacIver Institute was a guest on The John Batchelor Show Monday night.
Healy discusses Judge Maryann Sumi and the open-records case before her, as well as developments on the recall elections in Wisconsin. He also talks about the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, Justice David Prosser's victory, and Scott Walker's future.
Listen to the podcast or download the show here, Monday, 4/18/11 - Batchelor 9pm (Wisconsin topic begins at 18:30).
Justice David Prosser and his campaign are saying a recount of this month's election is unwarranted and would be costly for taxpayers.
"Admittedly the election was uncomfortably close," Prosser said at a Capitol news conference. "My opponent ran a very effective campaign. But now that all 72 counties have completed their canvasses, the result of the election is not in doubt."
...Prosser spoke for 25 minutes, but did not take questions. Troupis and other advisers addressed the media afterward.
"I presume this is my last campaign and that my fifteen minutes of celebrity will soon be over. Greta has stopped calling," said Prosser, referring to Fox News host Greta Van Susteren.
Prosser, 68, would be seated for a new 10-year term on the court on Aug. 1.
...Prosser said his election could have gone either way and that his ultimate victory was "an affirmation of my 30-plus years of public service."
He called for continuing to elect judges, amid cries from some to appoint the judicary. "Wisconsinites should not surrender this important right because of periodic frustrations about the messiness of democracy," he said.
Prosser also criticized an ad against him by the liberal Greater Wisconsin Committee that attacked him for his handling of a priest sex abuse case when he was Outagamie County district attorney more than 30 years ago.
"The blowback from that advertising helped to assure my re-election," he said. "The people of Wisconsin are too smart and too decent to base their votes on personal smears."
The victims in that case, Troy and Todd Merryfield, appeared in another third-party ad to support Prosser. The justice thanked them by name Monday, saying he had not talked to them in 33 years but hoped to do so soon.
Prosser also thanked GOP former Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, who first appointed Prosser to the court in 1998 and this year served as the honorary chairman of his campaign.
He further thanked three colleagues on the court - Justices Patience Roggensack, Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman. He singled out Gableman, calling him "tireless, indefatigable and brilliant."
That's very close, but not close enough for Kloppenburg to flip the results.
I will be seriously ticked off if Kloppenburg doesn't graciously concede now. She should not stick the taxpayers will the cost of a senseless recount. Sticking it to the taxpayers and dragging this thing out would serve to hurt the Left in the long run.
Don't request a recount.
In any event, my guess is Kloppenburg isn't so "ecstatic" anymore.
Ouch!
The video of this news conference is an instant classic in Wisconsin election history.
"Wisconsin voters have spoken and I am grateful for, and humbled by, their confidence and trust."
"I'm ecstatic. My supporters are ecstatic, and I'm looking forward to becoming a justice on August 1st."
"We ran a campaign that was focused on being positive and respectful and, and winning; and we did win, and we're confident that the margin will hold."
"You know, the numbers showed that we won and we are gratified to have that victory in hand."
What a terrible judgment Kloppenburg made when she declared victory with the minuscule margin of 204 votes!
A spokesman for Justice David Prosser this afternoon declared victory this afternoon, saying the "will of the electorate is clear" with the final canvass now in.
"Justice Prosser extends his appreciation and respect to Joanne Kloppenburg and her spirited campaign," Brian Nemoir said. "With certified results in-hand, Justice Prosser hopes that a shared respect for the judiciary allows the campaign to move to a positive conclusion."
Nemoir said Prosser looks forward to thanking voters and expects to make a public address soon.
It's no surprise that the liberal media are hammering away at Governor Scott Walker. Their relentless spin is predictable, but that doesn't make it more palatable.
That which isn't worth mentioning becomes newsworthy.
Turns out he and a campaign staffer were making the national rounds on the conservative circuit.
According to a Sunday piece on the right-wing website News- Max, Gov. Scott Walker had dropped by its headquarters in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Friday. The story said the trip was part of "a nationwide tour to drum up support for a new effort, FrontlineWisconsin.com, that seeks to defend eight Wisconsin GOP senators from a massive recall campaign that now is under way."
Various groups have launched recall efforts against 16 senators - eight Republicans and eight Democrats - for their positions on Walker's controversial budget-repair measure.
"What I've been doing is going around the country and making the case, given my position in Wisconsin, reaching out to folks across the country to say, 'Help us out,' " Walker told the online publication.
Walker "quietly" went to Florida.
What should he have done? Held a news conference to announce his trip?
What's wrong with Walker speaking in support of his agenda and Republicans?
I think he should try to help Republicans facing recall elections, to counter all the cash being dumped by the unions and out-of-state Democrats into the coffers of Dem state politicians.
Obama has been fundraising like crazy.
Do Dems/union bullies/liberal media criticize him?
At the end of March, Obama was raking in dough in New York. Today, Obama is in Chicago for fundraising events.
Personally, I think the president should be focusing on the monumental mess he's made at home and abroad rather than running around bringing in cash for his 2012 bid at taxpayers' expense. Air Force One isn't a cheap ride.
But Walker goes on a commercial flight to Florida and that's supposed to be inappropriate or sneaky or somehow wrong in some way.
Ridiculous!
Walker also spoke frankly to the publication about a number of other issues, including Supreme Court Justice David Prosser's re-election bid. (Full disclosure: No Quarter doesn't write about the court or that race because of a conflict of interest.)
So where is Walker going as part of this national tour? Who went with him to Florida? Did he hold any fundraisers for his own campaign while there?
Katie McCallum, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party and Walker's campaign, was initially tight-lipped about the Florida trip and national tour, providing just a bland statement that said the first-term Republican governor is defending the Senate Republicans for supporting his bill.
Later, McCallum explained that Walker had been invited by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, to speak on fiscal responsibility at a Florida event.
Heritage is a regular recipient of funds from the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation, which gave the Washington, D.C., outfit $478,000 in 2008 and '09, the last years for which data is available. Walker's campaign chairman, Michael Grebe, is the president of the Bradley Foundation.
"Governor Walker continues to do interviews in Wisconsin and around the nation with reporters and talk show hosts, and continues to deliver remarks at events promoting www.frontlinewisconsin.com," McCallum said in an email.
Walker and a campaign staffer traveled to Florida by commercial flight, not a state plane, McCallum said. The expenses, she said, were picked up by his campaign.
At a news conference earlier this week, Walker defended his unpublicized, out-of-state trip.
"I said you've got big government union money coming in from Washington," he told reporters after the Journal Sentinel disclosed the trip online. "I think grass-roots activists from across the state and across the country are needed to be able to counter it. So over the weekend, I made that case."
Oooooh! Walker's campaign was "tight-lipped" about the Florida trip and "national tour."
"National tour"?
Give me a break!
Walker goes to Florida and that's a crime.
Fourteen Democrat Wisconsin senators flee the state to bring the government to a halt and that's heroic.
Yeah, right.
This is a non-story and Bice is treating it like some important exposé. Kind of pathetic.
Also, Bice writes:
(Full disclosure: No Quarter doesn't write about the court or [Supreme Court Justice David Prosser's re-election bid] because of a conflict of interest.)
It's not full disclosure if Bice doesn't explain what the conflict of interest is.
With every vote being scrutinized in the state Supreme Court race in the wake of the so-called "Brookfield bombshell," the Milwaukee County Election Commission is expected to complete its canvass of vote totals and send the results to state officials on Thursday.
Milwaukee County Election Administrator Lisa Weiner said Wednesday that commission workers were proofing and double-checking their work related to the April 5 vote.
Weiner and Deputy Election Administrator Suzette Emmer said no significant discrepancies have been found during the canvass.
Although Milwaukee County's canvass remained incomplete late Wednesday, its current Supreme Court race totals when tallied with other counties' totals reported to the state's Government Accountability Board show that incumbent Justice David Prosser continues to lead challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg by about 7,300 votes.
...Milwaukee County, the state's most populous county, is typically the last to certify its results.
Friday is the deadline to turn in canvass results to the state. "The state's not rushing us," Weiner said.
...The deadline for requesting a recount is Tuesday.
Either candidate in the Supreme Court race can ask for a recount, but not until the canvass is complete.
If the margin between the candidates is less than 0.5% of the total ballots cast, the state charges nothing to conduct the recount.
Kloppenburg is hovering near the margin of a state-funded recount.
This statement is extremely misleading.
If the margin between the candidates is less than 0.5% of the total ballots cast, the state charges nothing to conduct the recount.
That's not true.
The state wouldn't charge a candidate for the cost of a recount, but it's not as if the state would charge nothing.
A recount wouldn't be free.
Nothing the government does is free.
The Journal Sentinel should be clear. Taxpayers will foot the bill if the margin between the candidates is less than 0.5%
Either JoAnne Kloppenburg and her allies in Wisconsin and around the country will pay or we, the taxpayers of Wisconsin, will.
If the unions and Kloppenburg want to drag the state through a recount, I hope they have to cover the cost.
Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus issued a statement Tuesday afternoon rejecting calls that she resign.
"I will serve the remainder of my term," Nickolaus said. "I understand why people are upset and I am taking this matter seriously. Again, I am sorry for my mistake."
"I have immediately begun the process of reviewing my procedures," with the Government Accountability Board and Waukesha County auditor, she said.
The statement comes the same day a Waukesha County Democratic Party leader called on Nickolaus, a Republican, to resign immediately in light of her performance in reporting results from last week's election and the fallout since.
STATEMENT OF WAUKESHA COUNTY CLERK KATHY NICKOLAUS REGARDING CALLS TO RESIGN
Waukesha, WI - "I will serve the remainder of my term. I understand why people are upset and I am taking this matter seriously. Again, I am sorry for my mistake. I have immediately begun the process of reviewing my procedures. I have also asked the Government Accountability Board and the Waukesha County Auditor to assist my office in a review and implementation of improved practices and procedures to make sure the process is more transparent and this mistake does not happen again. I will use the remainder of my term to restore the voter's confidence in me."
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Victor Weers, Waukesha County DEMOCRAT party leader, wants Kathy Nickolaus to resign.
Read his complete news release: "Waukesha Democrats: Time for Kathy Nicholaus to resign."
Good grief. Weers could have taken the time to spell Kathy NICKOLAUS' name correctly. It's misspelled four times.
A Waukesha County Democratic Party leader has called on Republican Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus to resign immediately in light of her performance in reporting results from last week's election and the fallout since.
Party Chairman Victor Weers said in a news release Tuesday that not only has the clerk's vote-counting and reporting process produced problems, but "Ms. Nicholaus (sic) has willfully ignored pleas to repair her broken reporting process in an open and technologically reliable way."
He said, "We must have a county clerk that we can trust to do this important work of the people with competence, security and openness. Waukesha must have a new county clerk now."
Nickolaus plans to respond this afternoon.
A staff member in Nickolaus' office said Nickolaus planned to make an announcement this afternoon, but the staff member did not know exactly when Nickolaus would be making a statement.
Nickolaus made a huge mistake.
I understand why she might want to step aside immediately, to get out of the spotlight and take shelter. I'm sure the union thugs and other assorted loons are harassing her.
However, I don't think she should be forced out against her will, especially by pressure from a guy who can't spell her name.
Democrats don't ask their own to resign when they make honest mistakes and not so honest mistakes. They reelect them.
Eugene Kane, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, writes about the importance of trust in a relationship.
It's been said that once trust goes out of a relationship, it's pretty much over.
What does that say about the state of Wisconsin politics these days?
At a public hearing on Gov. Scott Walker's two-year budget at State Fair Park on Monday, I talked to several people in attendance who didn't trust the Joint Finance Committee's decision to hold the event during daytime hours, when many working people were at their jobs.
Some suspected it was all a GOP plot to keep attendance low in the Milwaukee area for a hearing that was likely to draw thousands more if held at night.
Members of the Joint Finance Committee apparently didn't trust that local residents who registered to speak could keep their comments brief. A timekeeper kept reminding citizens about the 2-minute speaker's limit, including by holding up a sign when there were just 30 seconds remaining.
It's fair to say, after an election where both sides found reason to grumble, the mistrust factor is off the charts.
Democrats don't trust Walker when he says his budget-repair bill was designed to balance the budget and wasn't meant to kill public unions. Republicans don't trust Democrats, who they think are set on trying to paint the governor's proposed cost-cutting moves as disastrous to the state.
After last week's election, many voters weren't ready to trust the stunning news that 14,000 votes were mistakenly left out of the vote total in the state Supreme Court race in Waukesha County.
They didn't trust the electoral process enough to accept that it could have just been human error by a county clerk.
The main reason they felt that way was because they figured if the situation were reversed, the other side wouldn't trust them, either.
Kane acts as if the breakdown in trust in the relationship between the Democrats and Republicans in Wisconsin is a relatively recent development.
WRONG.
Conservatives have had reason to doubt the integrity of Wisconsin's elections for over a decade.
Democrats have shown they are untrustworthy and are willing to break the law to win.
In 2000, Constance Milstein used cigarettes to bribe the homeless in Milwaukee to vote for Al Gore.
A Park Ave. philanthropist accused of bribing homeless people in Milwaukee to vote for Al Gore in November has agreed to pay a $5,000 fine to settle her case.
Constance Milstein was in Milwaukee on the weekend before the Nov. 7 election to help Gore's presidential campaign drum up votes in hotly contested Wisconsin when a TV crew filmed her giving out packs of cigarettes, worth $3.25 each, to homeless men who had cast absentee ballots.
Prosecutors said that in handing out 10 packs of cigarettes, Milstein violated a Wisconsin election law that makes it a felony to induce someone to vote by providing anything worth more than $1.
But Kurt Benkley, an assistant district attorney for Milwaukee County, said prosecutors did not have enough evidence to file a criminal complaint against her because some witnesses had alcohol problems and many were difficult to locate.
Instead, the state filed a civil complaint.
Tim Metz, Milstein's spokesman, said, "She never had any idea she was doing anything wrong."
Of course, there are more documented cases to not trust Democrats to operate within legal limits.
Michael Pratt, 33, and Lewis Caldwell, 29, were each sentenced to six months in jail while Lavelle Mohammad, 36, got five months and Sowande Omokunde, 26, got four months. Each was also fined $1,000. They will be eligible for work release and were allowed to surrender to begin their sentences within two weeks.
Pratt is the son of former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt and Omokunde is the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.)
And there's the case of DEMOCRAT State Senate candidate Donovan Riley. That was certainly an embarrassment for the Dems. Riley actually voted twice in 2000, in the same election on the same day in both Wisconsin and Illinois. His excuse?
"My best recollection is that I was splitting my time between Wisconsin and Illinois, and it's possible I made a mistake."
That's not a "mistake." No one votes in one state and then crosses the border and votes again. Absolutely impossible. AND RILEY WAS A CANDIDATE FOR STATE SENATE!
Yes. Trust.
For me, that's been out of the political relationship in Wisconsin since the turn of the century, and with good reason.
Kane continues:
Which brings us to the ultimate sign of mistrust for some.
Republicans in Madison are proposing a photo ID bill to combat voter fraud that has often been couched in terms of giving the public more confidence in the electoral process.
After what happened in Waukesha County last week, it's fair to say voter confidence is probably at a low ebb. And as some pointed out, a photo ID bill would have done nothing to prevent the fiasco.
Judging from my recent mail, there is apparently a hard-core group of readers who get outraged whenever election officials in Republican strongholds are accused of wrongdoing but have no problem claiming residents of the Democratic-leaning inner city routinely commit voter fraud.
Predictably, Kane whips out the race card.
I think the guy should start talking to more people and quit relying on his mail to measure public sentiment. Kane makes generalizations based on some wacko mail. He's been doing it for years, rehashing the same old tripe.
Donovan Riley isn't an inner city resident. Voter fraud is not an inner city issue. Why bring race into this discussion at all? It's a distraction. It deflects from the real problem.
Kane concludes:
I think the results of last week's election demonstrated that most voters want their voices heard and will turn out in large numbers to exercise that right. We don't have to trust each other, but at the very least we have to trust that the system works.
Kane is right that the error made by Kathy Nickolaus would not have been prevented by voter photo ID.
But, it's an illogical leap for Kane to suggest that means such a system isn't useful in helping to clean up Wisconsin's elections.
I want to know how many people voted illegally on April 5th. How many same-day on-site registrations were bogus?
At present, I don't trust the present system to prevent fraud.
Because of our policies, Wisconsin is a voter fraud haven.
Fairness is what matters. That means one person, one vote.
Whatever steps are necessary to achieve that need to be taken.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin is expecting State Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg to ask for a statewide recount.
In typical Democrat style, the lawyers are swooping in to Wisconsin to manufacture a victory out of a failed election.
Wisconsin's GOP is gearing up to prevent the Dems from blocking the will of the people.
Liberal JoAnne Kloppenburg’s campaign is pulling out all the stops and her out of state lawyer allies are pouring into Wisconsin to force a recount. David Prosser needs our help and he needs it now.
Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, a solid conservative on the state’s Supreme Court, now leads by about 7,000 votes statewide after a vote canvas by the counties. But this fight is far from over. The expected statewide recount will begin as soon as this coming Friday and he urgently needs us to step up now to help monitor this recount and make sure the results Justice Prosser’s win is protected.
We're looking for at least five good volunteers in each of the state's 72 counties that could participate on the 'Prosser Recount Team" in their county's recount This process may take a few days to monitor the tally but without our volunteers Justice Prosser's election could be threatened.
Please, pick up the phone and find five people that could help protect Justice Prosser’s win and send those names with contact numbers and/or email addresses to:
Nathan Naidu nathannaidu05@gmail.com or call (404) 272-1874
We appreciate your help! Please, take a moment now to do what you can to help Justice Prosser.
Brad Courtney, State Chairman Brian Schimming, First Vice Chairman Republican Party of Wisconsin
Ramona Kitzinger, the Democratic vice chair of Waukesha County and Waukesha Board of Canvassers member since 2004, stepped forward during Kathy Nickolaus' news conference last Thursday to declare:
[The board] went over everything and made sure that all the numbers jibed up, and they did.
I'm the Democratic vice chair of Waukesha County, so I'm not going to stand here and tell you something that's not true.
Statement & Account of Ramona Kitzinger, Waukesha Board of Canvassers member since 2004:
Monday, April 11, 2011
(Waukesha County Democratic Party)On Tuesday night, I received a voice message from someone in the office of Clerk Kathy Nickolaus informing me of a Wednesday canvass meeting, which I returned the next morning and said I would be able to report into the canvass by noon, which I did. Normally the canvass would begin at 9am on Thursday, as has been the general practice for many years. No one explained why they were beginning the canvass on Wednesday, just to please report immediately.
Before this telephone call, I had not been contacted as the designated Democratic observer, and I saw no public notice of the abnormal canvass time. The phone call simply instructed me to report by noon to begin the canvass, which I did. The canvass then proceeded as normal, with no glaring irregularities or mention of a possible 15,000 vote error in Brookfield City.
On Thursday, I then showed up as per normal procedure at 9am and the canvass again went normally and concluded sometime between 4pm and 5pm. During the course of the day, the issue of minor vote corrections in New Berlin and Lisbon came up, but again nothing of a historic nature or reflecting glaring irregularities. In fact, the matter of vote totals in Brookfield City came up specifically during the course of Thursday's canvass. In retrospect, it seems both shocking and somewhat appalling there was no mention of discovery of this 15,000 vote "human error" that ultimately had the potential to tip the balance of an entire statewide election. How is this possible?
Once the canvass had been completed and the results were finalized, I was called into Kathy's office along with Pat (the Republican observer) and told of an impending 5:30pm press conference. It was at that point that I was first made aware of an error Kathy had made in Brookfield City. Kathy told us she thought she had saved the Brookfield voter information Tuesday night, but then on Wednesday she said she noticed she had not hit save. Kathy didn't offer an explanation about why she didn't mention anything prior to Thursday afternoon's canvass completion, but showed us different tapes where numbers seemed to add up, though I have no idea where the numbers were coming from. I was not told of the magnitude of this error, just that she had made one. I was then instructed that I would not say anything at the press conference, and was actually surprised when I was asked questions by reporters.
The reason I offer this explanation is that, with the enormous amount of attention this has received over the weekend, many people are offering my statements at the press conference that the "numbers jibed" as validation they are correct and I can vouch for their accuracy. As I told Kathy when I was called into the room, I am 80 years old and I don't understand anything about computers. I don't know where the numbers Kathy was showing me ultimately came from, but they seemed to add up. I am still very, very confused about why the canvass was finalized before I was informed of the Brookfield error and it wasn't even until the press conference was happening that I learned it was this enormous mistake that could swing the whole election. I was never shown anything that would verify Kathy's statement about the missing vote, and with how events unfolded and people citing me as an authority on this now, I feel like I must speak up.
So, 80-year-old Ramona is "very, very confused."
She doesn't "understand anything about computers."
Ramona doesn't "know where the numbers Kathy was showing [her] ultimately came from."
Poor confused, elderly Ramona.
She stepped up to the microphones in front of the cameras and made a statement last Thursday that the Democrats didn't like at all.
Today, Ramona is stating that she's a confused old lady who doesn't understand anything about computers and, ultimately, anything about the counting of votes.
She had "no idea where the numbers were coming from."
In other words, disregard what little old lady Ramona said at the news conference. She didn't realize what she was saying. She's very, very confused.
Alas, the Democrats have to throw her under bus.
If Ramona is so clueless, why is she the Dems' observer?
Actually, I'm surprised it took this long for the Democrats to get Kitzinger to publicly recant her remarks.
Question: How hard and long must Democrats twist an 80-year-old lady's arm before she breaks?
A powerful storm system that moved through the nation's midsection over the weekend caused what may be a record-breaking seven tornadoes in Wisconsin, officials said Monday.
"It's one of the most significant tornado outbreaks in April," said Rich Mamrosh, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. He said if confirmed, the number of Sunday night storms may have broken a record for a single day in April in the state -- the previous record was six.
...A tornado in Merrill in the north-central portion of the state causing widespread damage to homes and businesses, said Captain Scott Krause of the Merrill Fire Department. Three people were taken to area hospitals.
Instead of responding with concern for the people affected by the storms, here's how some deranged Leftists reacted on Twitter:
The left is, understandably, upset that the victory they imagined JoAnne Kloppenburg to have was all a counting error by a Waukesha County functionary with a poor reputation. You can see where they’re thinking conspiracy – the reality is too painful for them to confront.
Media Trackers points out, however, that the accurate Brookfield vote count – not the zero that Kathy Nickolaus apparently included in preliminary results – was already reported publicly.
They were reported by Patch, the hyperlocal online news site, in this case by reporter Lisa Sink, who wrote on election night:
“As expected, Brookfield city voters ran up a good turnout in the state Supreme Court race and gave incumbent Justice David Prosser nearly 11,000 votes.
“Unofficial, unaudited results showed 76 percent of city residents who voted picked Prosser, with 24 percent voting for challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg.”
Those numbers fit the corrected numbers Nickolaus is citing now. In other words, they weren’t made up afterward.
It's really kind of sad that some on the Left are so out of touch with reality.
They are in denial. And the problem is they don't come out of it. They stay in denial. Nothing convinces them. Reality is irrelevant. If THE FACTS don't fit, the Leftists ignore them.
Gore defeated Bush. Kerry defeated Bush. Kloppenburg defeated Prosser.
