Wisconsin Megathread v3: GOP in MASSIVE DISARRAY

[Nhoj]

Question for the MKE area posters since i think i have seen some of you express dislike for Chris Larson before. Is Crowley likely to be a lot better?

[Nhoj]

https://twitter.com/WisRight_Ls/status/1633524212022272017?s=20

Outside of this headline, the article is also pretty good. Sounds like some Republican operatives are not happy with Kelly focusing on "defending the Constitution," saying essentially that no one cares about the Wisconsin State Constitution, compared to Protasiewicz who is campaigning on concrete issues (abortion and democracy).

I’m shocked! I’m stunned! I’m astounded!

Are you meaning to tell me people don’t care about a document that can change as easily as the tides???

Hey now the way to change the Wisconsin constitution is in fact super tedious!  But yeah, literally no one has an idea of what's even in it.

[Nhoj]

Also it's not it's likely that any campaign managers or people playing a key role are going to decide to slack off and just take victory for granted because of positive posts somewhere online. And even as far as voters go...it's pretty weird to think that the message of an optimistic post to Wisconsin voters is actually "yeah you don't even need to bother voting."

I was going to vote, but then I read a positive post on Atlas forum and decided it was a waste of my time to walk 1 block to the townhall in April.

[Nhoj]

Slightly less worried about the WOW turnout after seeing this:

https://twitter.com/Simon_El_Gato__/status/1641077761933492225?s=20

Most of the big turnout areas are places that have seen big swings to the left.

Just for anyone that doesn't know there are various local elections going on as well including school referenda. So, some areas are going to end up with higher turnout than others in somewhat random seeming ways.

[Nhoj]

These anecdotal videos are usually propaganda, regardless of which side they're hyping up.

Yeah i live in a 70% R town and there was a bunch of Cars in the townhall parking lot when i got home from work. I Will probably ask if turnout has been high when i go vote soon. I suspect it has been.

[Nhoj]

Currently standing in line at my polling place in Portage. HUGE lines. Turnout will be very high.

Portage County if you don't mind me asking?

Portage City, Columbia County.

Evers got 51 percent in your county in 2022.

62% in Portage

Honestly i do wonder how Portage city has remained so dem is it just like a mix of state employees at the prison and people looking for Low CoL place close to madison? Because there has been pretty substantial swings to Rs in other parts of Columbia county.

[Nhoj]

Judge Janet is going to win Brown County, FYI

She got near obama 08 margin in Door County

[Nhoj]

lmao, apparently this meme even applies to courts



Kudos on Dems in MI, WI and MN for actually playing to win. It would really be nice to see that spirit at the national level.

Its more a case of the Dems in the midwest following the GoPs lead on that and indeed in new york when republicans have had some power they didn't immediately try and get abortion bans. When you have actual polarization, this is the result.

[Nhoj]

This certainly looks how sane and functioning democracies work.

How does Wisconsin, at least one heart of the Progressive movement, not have a robust initiative and referendum process?

Voters had a chance 100+ years ago but they shot it down as no party really made a case for it, and the Dems/GOP were publicly against it. Probably a good example of voters not really thinking too hard about what they were voting for.

Never go against a ballot initiative amendment. It's rare for a legislature to offer that and if you turn it down once, you probably won't get another opportunity. Lawmakers hate sharing power.

The counterpoint is that if you vote for a ballot initiative amendment, you'll be stuck with ballot initiatives forever. I can't think of a better reason to vote against it.

I guess it depends how you look at it. Initiatives have been a key driver for marijuana legalization, and we'd never be where we are without it. It's also allowed voters in some states to end gerrymandering and roll back voter restrictions. Granted, it gets abused as well at times, but to me personally, it's well worth it. There are so many policies that never would have had a chance without voters being able to put it to a vote themselves.

Initiatives are a great tool of special interests to do an end run around the legislature and buy legislation, and then of course once they get their legislation it can't ever be changed without an initiative, which nobody can ever pursue because it would be cripplingly expensive to defeat the corporation. In 2020 we got Proposition 22, which means that the legislature can never regulate the working conditions of Uber or Lyft drivers; in 2010 we nearly got Proposition 16, which would have effectively banned municipalities from replacing PG&E with municipally owned power providers. There are plenty more examples of corporations using the initiative process to buy laws that could never possibly be passed in the legislature because they are odious to anyone who understands them.

The initiative process is also a great tool to weaponize in industrial disputes, because doing so only comes at the expense of voters who have to deal with frivolous initiatives. When I filled out my ballot there were so many things to vote on that at the end my hand was quite literally hurting. Of course I'm not competent to decide on any of this, because that's what elected legislators are for.

I care much less about marijuana legislation than I care about the place I live in having a functional tax base, which it never will because the initiative process allowed economically illiterate voters in 1978 to have their say. That can't ever be fixed because doing so would require a ballot measure that could never withstand the unfathomable sums of money that would be spent against it. The more direct democracy you have, the more you hate it.

Yes and in Wisconsin this potentially would have seen us restoring the death penalty in 2006, something we abolished in 1853. Seeing as it passed in an advisory referendum.