WI Sup. Ct.: Prosser Declared Winner

Via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser emerged as the winner Friday over challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg in a heated election that drew national attention because of the fight over collective bargaining and a ballot reporting error in Waukesha County, following initial results that showed Kloppenburg leading the race.

A canvass of vote totals from the state’s 72 counties finalized Friday afternoon shows Prosser beating Kloppenburg, an assistant attorney general, by 7,316 votes. The final canvass of the April 5 vote was completed 10 days after the election, the maximum allowed by state law.

The margin – 0.488% – is within the 0.5% limit that would allow Kloppenburg to request a statewide recount at taxpayers’ expense.

Following the announcement, Prosser declared victory, but Kloppenburg did not concede. She has until Wednesday to request a recount, though obviously with a margin this wide, such an effort would almost certainly not change the outcome.

Also worth checking out is this analysis from the Brennan Center, which shows that conservative groups spent $2.22 million on the race, compared to $1.37 million from the lone progressive group, the Greater Wisconsin Committee. (For some reason, the Journal Sentinel calls the former figure “37% more” than the latter, but they simply have it backwards – the GWC spent 37% less than the conservative groups, which is still a pretty misleading way of putting, since the right-wing orgs spent over half-again as much as our side did.)