I hope you all realize that we WON in Wisconsin last night!

[Playinghardball]

This is why:

State Senate - District 21 - Special General
60 of 60 Precincts Reporting - 100%
Name Party Votes Vote %
Lehman, John Dem 36,255 51%
Wanggaard, Van (i) GOP 35,476 49%

What this means is the Wisconsin State Senate will now have a Democratic majority.

Scott Walker's reign of terror is over.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/06/1097790/-I-hope-you-all-realize-that-we-WON-Wisconsin

[eowyn_of_rohan]

1. If the GOP candidate does not ask for a recount here, it will be quite telling

and Lehman should ask for one immediately... He'd have NO trouble getting enough donations to cover it

[Jackpine Radical]

2. I have word that the recount demand is already in the mill.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

3. AWESOME - here is an article-sounds like Waangard isn't sure he wants a recount.

http://elections.wispolitics.com/
People across the state and country have asked that I immediately ask for a recount. However, we all know that the best decisions are made when well-rested and after consideration of all options,” Wanggaard said in a brief statement. “We will closely monitor the canvass of votes with legal representation. We will evaluate our options regarding recounts following the official count of ballots.”

[Matariki]

7. Can you explain what you mean?

If the GOP losing candidate doesn't ask for a recount what would it tell you? And why should the unchallenged winner ask for a recount?

This is sort of a rhetorical question but merits more direct discussion, imo.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

10. This is an interesting situation

"Wanggaard not conceding, not yet asking for recount after unofficial Lehman win" The GOP & Waangard have to make a decision...this election is so close with only 779 votes, 2% difference separating the candidates. If he asks for a recount there is a chance he could win, and they wouldn't lose their senate seat. But we would also be able to see the results of the Gov race in District 21. Is it more important to the GOP to keep Walker as gov and not let us inspect the ballots or for them to keep control of the senate... do they think they could get away with some ballot switching before the recount and take it ALL?

adding: At first I thought Lehman - the Dem who won this - should ask for a recount for the simple reason that we would be able to see the Gov race totals at the same time. Now I don't think so - better to keep the Senate seat than risk the possibility of having the ballots tampered with before the recount (as happened last year in Waukesha Co), and losing not only the Gov race but the senate seat as well.

Of course the GOP has to be considering this side of it as well as they decide what to have Wangaard do..

[Matariki]

11. I'm pretty certain that a recount is ONLY for the race in question

so no one would be looking at the Governor vote tallies. If there's any malfeasance on their part it would be that Lehman won by a much larger margin.

Also, I think the vote difference has to be under a 1/2% for the recount to be paid for - otherwise the candidate who requests it has to pay. Is that 2% difference correct? If so, I can see why the Waangard would have to think hard about requesting a recount.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

12. you can see the other races while you are checking the one that is being recounted

you can videotape the ballots and all info is there.

Adding
I observed last year for the WI Supreme Court recount

[KansDem]

4. "Scott Walker's reign of terror is over."

It does appear that, while he's won the battle, he's lost the war...

[former9thward]

5. A rather meaningless victory.

The legislature is not in session and will not be in session until after the next elections in November.

[xfundy]

6. They haven't counted all the early/absentee votes yet, have they? nt

[DrDan]

8. a majority for an out-of-session state senate . . . not exactly meaningful victory

[WilliamPitt]

9. Um...

The Senate is out of session, and won't be back unless Walker calls a special session, which he won't. Everyone who won last night will have to win again in November before they can legislate.

I'm all for chin-up and stiff-upper-lip, but the fact is that we won basically nothing but a bag of hair and another election in five months.

[Honeycombe8]

13. Good point. nt