BUMMER: Why a race further down the Wisconsin ballot rattled Democrats

[MADem]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/04/06/why-a-race-further-down-the-wisconsin-ballot-rattled-democrats/

Wisconsin's luckless Democrats, gerrymandered into a minority and unable to retire Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.), went into Tuesday night hoping for a breakthrough. They saw a decent chance to defeat Rebecca Bradley, a conservative justice appointed to the state Supreme Court by Walker. Her opponent, JoAnne Kloppenburg, nearly won a seat on the court in 2011, before late-counted ballots from conservative Waukesha County did her in. And Bradley took a crucially-timed hit when reporters and the advocacy group One Wisconsin Now revealed far-right newspaper columns, with impolitic fulminations about gay rights, from her college years.

Bradley won the election, a surprise to Democrats. This morning, some progressives picked a culprit: voters who cast ballots for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and left the rest of their ballots blank. According to exit polling conducted by the independent group DecisionDesk and BenchMark Politics, perhaps 15 percent of Sanders voters skipped the Bradley-Kloppenburg race; just 4 percent of Hillary Clinton voters did the same.

"There was an enormous drop-off," said Brandon Finnigin of DecisionDesk. "There was a substantial number of voters in that voted for Sanders, then for nothing else."

Anger at the allegedly stingy Sanders voters has roiled the online left all day. Bradley won 1,017,233 votes; Kloppenburg won just 925,929. But 1,004,636 people voted in the Clinton-Sanders contest. While the judicial race was nonpartisan, Democrats were informed that Kloppenburg was their candidate, and Clinton used a speech in Milwaukee to endorse her.
"There is no place on any Supreme Court or any court in this country, no place at all for Rebecca Bradley's decades-long track record of dangerous rhetoric against women, survivors of sexual assault and the LGBT community," Clinton said on April 2.....

[CincyDem]

1. Apparently HRC was wrong - there is a place and it's called Wisconsin.

"There is no place on any Supreme Court or any court in this country, no place at all for Rebecca Bradley's decades-long track record of dangerous rhetoric against women, survivors of sexual assault and the LGBT community," Clinton said on April 2.....

Time for a long swig of WTF. Almost makes me want to boycott cheese (but ya know, it is kind of a basic food group so...maybe not.)

[WhiteTara]

2. It's too bad, I'm sorry for the citizens

of Wisconsin. They got berned badly when 11% of his supporters left off voting down ticket.

[Skink]

3. Get used to it

Sanders folks only vote for real Dems.

[upaloopa]

4. Funny since Bernie isn't a real Dem nor does he give money to Dems

[MADem]

6. The poster is saying that the LGBT-friendly judge isn't a "real Dem." smh!

I've not seen this level of political naivete in many, many decades.

[MADem]

5. So you think that this judge was not a "real Dem?" Please explain.

The right-wing, gay hating judge is a better choice?

[Skink]

7. Let me guess you voted Romney for Ma Gov.

[MADem]

13. I have two words for you, and they aren't Happy Birthday.

Calling someone on this board a Republican is a TOS violation.

You need to check yourself. Before you wreck yourself.

Here, here's a graphic to brighten your sad, bitter, "my candidate is losing" day:

[Skink]

16. Went to see Bill already and am not against Hillary.

Just don't pin stuff on Bernie. The best and brightest I have seen.

[Newkularblue]

8. Says an exit poll done by someone no one has heard of..

[MADem]

14. Says a poster I've never heard of! LOL.

Welcome to DU, there, buddy.
Enjoy!

Google is your friend--you'll learn all you need to know about those polling agencies just by using that tool.

[Newkularblue]

17. You've never heard of me? Color me heart-broke

More than a million votes were cast on the Democratic side and almost 1.1 million on the Republican side.

http://m.jsonline.com/news/blogs/374737091.html

Even if 100% of those voting Dem had voted for Joanne, she would still have lost. WI had near record turnout.

But it suits your narrative to just blame those (insert insult here) Bernie supporters.

My posts may be new but I found DU when Act10 passed here in WI and have been lurking since.

[MADem]

19. The lesson's in the coat tails. Bern doesn't have 'em. His peeps don't listen. nt

[Newkularblue]

20. Perhaps they dont like being told how to vote...

Maybe some of the short ballots were because people didnt feel they knew enough to choose wisely.

Possibly inexperienced voters...

The ballots WERE shit ( no excuse though)

Lots of possibilities... its up to you to decide if these 'peeps' warrant time and attention to keep them in the fold come Nov

or

Call them failures for trying...

Big Tent or Gated Community... your call

[MADem]

21. Why would any superdelegate want a nominee who can't help with downticket races?

In essence, if he can't motivate his supporters, he's useless.

Kiss o'death!

If his supporters don't listen to him, then they aren't really his supporters--they're Trump's.

[Newkularblue]

25. Im pretty there arent many supers

That actually asked for his help.. those committed Hillary supers being on the record an all.

Consider the optics (not to mention logic) of campaigning for someone supporting, and funneling money to, your opponent. Whats the slogan? "I forgive you!" "Please come back!" Makes no sense.

Its a travesty that Judge K lost, but she didnt lose because of either Dem candidate. She lost because the republicans supported the bigoted homophobe.

WI doesn't know who she is just now politically and gerrymandered to hell an gone. I lay the blame for that directly at the feet of Mikey Tate (former WI party chair) and the DNC's EPIC failures at the state level.

Edited:

You know, those 'real Democrats'

[MADem]

26. You plainly don't seem to understand a candidate's role as party standard bearer. nt

[Newkularblue]

27. Oh clearly not

Perchance you could edjumacate this lowly fool?

Since you brought up leadership again.... big tent or gated community?

You seem to be telling the undesireables to "Keep the hell out if wont do what i say!"

If Bernie wins we'll see how long his coat tails are... I would think you'd want to stick with the person bringing in new (read not just young) blood.

[MADem]

28. It's not rocket science, but the fact that you ask for an explanation is telling.

The winner of the nomination becomes the party standard bearer. This person will choose which people take party leadership positions and determine the future of the party.

Sanders' li'l buddy just rolled it out and stepped in it.

The Big Tent shouldn't include Libertarians, Paulbots, and terrorists carrying bombs, like Little Jeffy, who want to destroy the place.

In fact, after this performance, I wouldn't be surprised if the Democratic Party goes to a super-large gated community. More closed primaries. Fewer caucuses. One person, one vote.

I wouldn't mind it---because the Sanders Brigade doesn't have any respect for the traditions of the party, and doesn't even bother to help down ticket Dems--as we've seen in WI, and in the fact that Sanders hasn't yet raised a PENNY to help any of those down ticket candidates. Even though he promised to do this LAST YEAR.

[Newkularblue]

30. You really believe the condescending stuff you spout, dont you?

Then you cant figure out why people dont respect the party....

Just... wow... gated community indeed.

[MADem]

31. Look at you, acting like you "know" me. You've only been here for less than a month--or did you

forget?



OTIO!!

[Newkularblue]

32. I dont, and dont care to given the majority

Of your posts. But you keep plugging away at deterring those undesireables from joining the party or participating.

Lemme know how that works out for you in Nov.

[Newkularblue]

33. Some good news ill leave you with

The One Wisconsins lawsuit re: Gerrymandering cleared a hurdle yesterday.

Hopefully we can agree thats a good thing.

[shraby]

9. It also could be because the Bradley/Kloppenburg race was put in the other column. Many people may

not have seen it. I had to make an effort to look for it. As usual, there is no party affiliation for judges so people often skip them anyway because they aren't aware of who to vote for.
I sure miss the League of Women Voters who used to put out an information page on candidates. The information was supplied by the candidates themselves.

Also a thing I've noticed in the mailings from candidates that their party affiliation is not to be found anyplace on the flyers or in the phone calls it's often not told unless I ask.

[MADem]

10. Sanders never mentioned her. NOT ONCE. Clinton actively touted her.

Bernie didn't work the down ticket.

There is no identified party affiliation, but it's obvious if you have one person who is LGBT-friendly, and one who is a gay hating asshole, that you TELL your supporters--as Clinton did--why that vote is important and to make sure they complete the ballot.

It's a failing, and this loss is HIS FAULT.

[Goblinmonger]

11. That's just a lie

He did say things. From MSNBC 3 days ago (and if anybody would want to bag on Sanders, it would be them).

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/clinton-sanders-take-on-judge-in-wisconsin-658924611729

[MADem]

12. What's wrong with his fans? Do they not give a shit? Or do they not listen?

If you look at YOUR video, it's obvious who did the most work in GOTVing for Kloppenburg. I won't force you to watch the whole thing but start at 20:32 and he gives her ONE sentence, gets a big cheer, and that's that. And that's after he affects a lack of knowledge about local races.

Clinton gives a detailed and full throated attack on Bradley and makes it plain who is the fuckup, and who her peeps should vote for.

Your video proves my point.

The bottom line is this--far more Sanders supporters just voted "Bernie" and bailed out. They didn't care about anything else. That's suggestive of something that doesn't bode well for Bernie's "coattails."

By contrast, far more Clinton supporters did do the downticket thing.

[Newkularblue]

18. I call Math!

When your side has 1Million people vote and the other side has.1.1Million people vote you what?
a) lose
b) lose
c) cant Math that hard

[Goblinmonger]

34. So you said he said nothing; I showed you he did. But my showing you he did proves YOUR point?

That's some bizarro world spinning there, my friend.

You made a claim that he said NOTHING about the race. That is patently not true (a lie, actually). I showed you something that was the first result of the search I did where he does say stuff. I live in Wisconsin. It was part of what he said. Just because MSNBC doesn't show every single segment from every single speech doesn't mean it was said multiple times in multiple locations.

But the important point is that you are spreading lies about what he did and you won't even acknowledge that.

Additionally, he is not the reason why Bradley won. There are numbers that I have read in several locations--which someone else gave you in a response--that show that even if he had worked miracles, she would have still won. Why? Because we are fucked as a state (but that's another discussion).

Finally, let's assume everything you say is right (it isn't). Do you think the best approach to the new voters that Sanders is bringing in is to tell them they are stupid? How about actually making them Dems that do vote for all the elections down the line? How about educating them? No, instead you want to berate them and blame things on them. That should go well in the GE.

[MADem]

35. One throw-away sentence.

You can go to the mark on the video and see what little he said.

He is not helping down ticket--and this was a good example of that.

If he doesn't help with down ticket candidates, do you seriously think any super delegates -- many of whom are or will be "down ticket candidates" themselves--would be inclined to support him?

He cuts off his nose to spite his face.

And, FWIW, I am not "spreading lies." I am asking questions. He didn't deliver downticket votes and it's important to know why.

[Goblinmonger]

37. So you are saying that that video is a documentary of every single speech in Wisconsin.

Yeah, he wasn't campaigning for the Supreme Court race. But he did say something and told people how to vote. From what I have heard, he did so at each speech in Wisconsin.

You are spreading lies when you make claims that he said NOTHING. That ISN'T TRUE. Stop it.

Even if he delivered downticket votes, Bradley would still have won. You have not addressed that reality, either.

[Wilms]

15. Did you see that documented somewhere.

He didn't campaign for her, but it's not like he didn't mention her. He trashed the opponent as well.

And this analysis disagrees with your assessment of fault.

snip

Sanders and his campaign knows this. He could have campaigned very hard among his younger supporters to bring the number of young supporters that voted for Bradley or didn't vote at all into Kloppenburg's side, and he DID mention Kloppenburg in passing a few times, noting that "he wishes she would win." However, it was not a central part of his campaign.

snip

If Sanders had lowered his "did not vote" population to Clinton's 4%, his voters would have narrowed the gap to 48,500 votes. So simply getting his "no voters" to vote would not have been enough, he would have had to lower his Bradley voters as well.

If Sanders had cut the Bradley voters from 10% to 6%, still 2% more than Clinton's Bradley voters, he would have taken 28,000 votes from Bradley and added them to Kloppenburg, it would have closed the gap by 56,000, more than the 48,5000 votes remaining. Even with this, he still would have had more abstentions and Bradley voters than Clinton (150% the Bradley voters of Clinton), but it would have saved Kloppenburg's candidacy.

snip

http://www.benchmarkpolitics.com/2016/04/did-sanders-voters-doom-kloppenburg.html

[shraby]

22. What's the matter with you? People have t.v.s and can see the ads for the judges.

There were a lot against Kloppenburg saying she let people off that had committed major crimes. That's an old republican trick, scaring people. That's cause it works.

[marble falls]

23. A lot of the same people who voted for President Obama saddled him with a teabag congress.

[MADem]

24. Hard as hell to shift an incumbent rep....and Senators too--but they only run every 6 years. nt

[marble falls]

29. The Senate turned GOP during his term and he lost more of the House ....

And Reps run every two years.

[MADem]

36. By "they" I meant Senators. Reps never get a break, which is why some want to become Senators. nt