Kloppenburg declares victory in Wisconsin Supreme Court race

With the AP showing her leading David Prosser by 204 votes (740,090 to 739,886), JoAnne Kloppenburg is declaring victory. She put out the following statement:

“We owe Justice Prosser our gratitude for his more than 30 years of public service. Wisconsin voters have spoken and I am grateful for, and humbled by, their confidence and trust. I will be independent and impartial and I will decide cases based on the facts and the law. As I have traveled the State, people tell me they believe partisan politics do not belong in our Courts.  I look forward to bringing new blood to the Supreme Court and focusing my energy on the important work Wisconsin residents elect Supreme Court justices to do.”

More to come as we get it.

224 thoughts on “Kloppenburg declares victory in Wisconsin Supreme Court race”

  4. I think this might be a little premature. I would have advised her to wait until either Prosser conceded or filed for a recount/recanvass.

  5. If she loses a recount she loses a recount. No downside to declaring victory in a situation like this IMO.

    1. ‘Cos everyone cared about the mayoral race so much between two practically identical candidates that there would never be any undervoting.

  8. Madison Ward 34 voted in favor of Justice JoKlo by a 2352-79  margin. That’s 96.7% for JoKlo and 3.3% for Prosser.

    Bless their hearts, and bless the city of Madison for waking ALL OF US progressives across the nation over the past two months. Thank you for your loud voices.

  9. Lost in the shuffle was the loss of “Mayor Dave” Cieslewicz in Madison by less than 1 percent — one has to wonder what would have happened without the massive spike in turnout due to the Supreme Court race.  That said, if there are any substantial policy differences between the two candidates I’m having trouble finding them.

  11. Forgive me for making this off-color, inappropriate comment, but someone has to and I feel like inappropriate, off-color comments are kinda my bag, so…

    Who’s the bitch now, Prosser?

    Also, more seriously, that statement of Kloppenburg’s is very diplomatic and seems lovingly crafted to push the old bastard toward retirement, where he can spend his days watching Fox News, eating cheese, and not harming the increasingly great state of Wisconsin.

  17. What a thriller. The lead went back and forth, vote counts were reported and then corrected, precincts were declared empty, there were underperformances, there were overperformances, there was a swing from the previous round of voting, and then at the end, a cricket-esque epic as (Justice-elect?) Kloppenburg chased Justice Prosser’s lead.

    The last Election Night I remember as anything this intense was the Democratic primary in Kentucky for the U.S. Senate nomination last year, when Atty. Gen. Conway just barely eked out a win over Lt. Gov. Mongiardo after the two traded leads for hours.

    I just wanted to say thanks to y’all for being part of it. Certainly made things more interesting, even though I think we may have taxed the servers a bit at times…

    Congratulations to JoAnne Kloppenburg. Truly an epic race.

    1. so you don’t really get contested ballots and the like.  This isn’t MN-Sen 2008 where a panel of judges had to decide on each and every paper ballot, based on smudge marks here and there.

      Recounts of electronic votes do not usually change anything.  I’m much more worried about the possibility of tabulation errors, those can cause much bigger swings.

      So it’s not a potential recount I’m nervous about, it’s the recanvassing where they double check the numbers and ferret out any mistakes made along the way.

  18. Now, I know there is a lot of talk about recalling governor walker. But this can not be done until at least January 2012. Would it not be advantageous to have said election in November of 2012, instead of earlier in the year?

  19. I would be very very worried.  This is a guy who had no other scandal other than being barely associated with Walker and having an R ostensibly beside his name.  Let’s be honest, it’s unbelievable that in the span of 2 months a guy went from 55% to less than 50% and losing to some unknown person.  Even if Prosser somehow wins, which I highly doubt, it’s still a major loss for Walker and the State Senate GOP.  

  20. Nice statement by Kloppenburg while at the same time restating her victory…

    http://elections.wispolitics.c…

    Still, I’m a bit concerned that she seems so flippant about hiring attorneys for a recount.  She should get herself prepared for a very contentious and ugly process by the opposition.

  21. In 1989, a recount on a referendum caused a swing of 448 votes (not sure how many were cast total, but I’m guessing it’s fewer than yesterday). So a Prosser win is possible but unlikely.

    1. I don’t want to step on their announcements by talking about them here, but there are top tier challengers lined up against Hopper, Darling, Kapanke, and Olsen if those

      qualify. No word yet on Harsdorf or Cowles.

      The unfortunate problem with Cowles is that our best possible candidate was just elected Outagamie County Exec (which is a huge coup in its own right, of course).

  22. Nothing much more we can do now.

    Well, unless Prosser’s side starts throwing shit at every possible opportunity, at which point we ought to stand ready to call them out on it.

    1. She gets a big chunk of the circle of ignorance (i.e. the new swingstate name for the Milwakee suburbs) in her district.

      Like you said, Hopper’s district looked pretty damn red to me, at first glance. It has to be seats that have some Western territory to them, ‘cos that’s where we were competitive.  

  24. All voted ballots must be returned to election officials so they can be delivered to the polling place no later than 8 p.m. on Election Day, with the exception of fall elections for “active-away” military electors who only need to have the ballot postmarked by Election Day.  The ballot must still be received by election officials no later than 7 days after the Partisan Primary and no later than 10 days after the General Election.

    http://gab.wi.gov/elections-vo…

    Does this count as a fall election?

  26. I was going to post a prediction saying Prosser would win by two points but it was too late. Obviously I am pleased with this result, a win is a win, and beating an incumbent in what should have been a low profile election is not an easy thing to do. A more decisive win would have been nicer but this still sends a message to Walker. Now onto the recalls!  

  27. MosheM at RRH is claiming there are 500-600 uncounted votes in a heavily Prosser county which would put him in the lead and make him the winner pre recount.  Is there any truth to this or is he grasping at straws?

  28. It seems there was an error in Winnebago county and it is now giving Prosser a 40 vote lead, making him the winner?

    Is this true?  Should I just stop reading RRH?

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