4-3, or 3-3-1? Unofficial results in the big Wisconsin judicial election have Dem-backed JoAnne Kloppenburg beating Scott Walker’s candidate, incumbent conservative David Prosser, by 204 votes. (“We’re all a little disappointed (the vote) wasn’t four to one,” John Kamerling of Madison, a Walker opponent, told the Appleton Post-Crescent.) Recount and appeal procedures are outlined in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s story. …
P.S.: Am I crazy, or does The Nation‘s Wisconsin reporter John Nichols sound surprisingly tentative when describing the eventual outcome?
I have a feeling Ms. Kloppenburg’s numbers might well hold. … If Kloppenburg wins, as I do think is very likely now …
Does he know something we don’t? … Update: Maybe something like this. …
P.P.S.: On Last Word, Lawrence O’Donnell said Kloppenburg’s vote “will be the decisive vote on whether Wisconsin’s anti union bill is legal.” Maybe. Maybe not! One of the judges often counted on a post-Kloppenburg 4-3 liberal majority is hardly a sure thing vote for either side. In fact, Justice N. Patrick Crooks sided with the conservatives more often than the liberals, although not necessarily in high-profile 4-3 cases. (Crooks is described by kf‘s key sources in the field as a bit of a Souter type–not as liberal as Souter, maybe, but independent and unpredictable after having originally been supported by conservatives.) …There is also the minor issue of whether opponents of the anti-union law have a case. Or does everyone agree that doesn’t matter anymore? … [Thanks to alert Wisconsin reader P.]