Rick Ungar, columnist at money-minded Forbes magazine, analyzes the Prosser-Kloppenburg race and reaches some interesting conclusions, to wit:
#3c3c3c; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
#000000; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'New Century Schoolbook', 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', serif;">According to the B#0f2d5f; text-decoration: underline; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial;" href="http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/judicial_public_financing_...">rennan Center, approximately $3.5 million in special interest money was spent on the race – a truly remarkable sum for a judicial election where the return of the incumbent is a forgone conclusion before the race even begins.
#000000; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'New Century Schoolbook', 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', serif;">The big money also brought the first sign of trouble for Walker and the GOP majorities in both houses of the state legislature.
#000000; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'New Century Schoolbook', 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', serif;">While some $1.4 million of special interest money was spent in support of the unknown challenger by the unions and other left -leaning groups, the lion’s share of the cash dedicated to the election came from Koch Brothers financed organizations and the right-wing Club For Growth on behalf of of Justice Prosser.
#000000; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'New Century Schoolbook', 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', serif;">It’s not every day that the right-wing uber-rich can outspend the Democrats by nearly 2-1 and find themselves in a close election. That had to get some GOP stomachs churning.
#000000; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'New Century Schoolbook', 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', serif;">When Election Day arrived, those GOP churning tummies blossomed into full blown heartburn as voters turned out record numbers for what is typically a very low priority election. Big turn out is never a good thing for the GOP.
#000000; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'New Century Schoolbook', 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', serif;">Who won?
#000000; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'New Century Schoolbook', 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', serif;">We don’t really know – and probably won’t for some time to come.
#000000; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'New Century Schoolbook', 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', serif;">At the moment of this writing, with 100% of the precincts voted, JoAnne Kloppenburg appears to have pulled out the victory by just 200 of the 1.5 million votes cast suggesting that a recount is a virtual certainty.
#000000; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'New Century Schoolbook', 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', serif;">But from the perspective of what this election means to Walker and friends going forward, it no longer really matters who wins the race as Governor Walker and the GOP controlled state legislature have clearly lost - and lost big.
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#000000; margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'New Century Schoolbook', 'Nimbus Roman No9 L', serif;">http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/04/06/scott-walkers-election-nightmare-in-wisconsin/