WI-SEN 2022 Megathread: Who stole my cheese?

[coloradocowboi]

https://twitter.com/kirk_bado/status/1334178385380171788

The Democrats trying to run someone independently wealthy is so gd dumb, it's truly insane. It never works. It actively plays into their biggest problem: white working class voters who think they are the party of the elite. They'd do just about as well running Gwen Moore statewide as running some rando Fortune 500 heiress

I think Pocan or Kind are probably their best bets. In a time as polarized as our, the goal should be someone inoffensive to the base, lowkey, and capable of running a massive operation. I'd lean toward running Pocan because a Democrat will def replace him, while Kind could at least maybe hold that seat (probably not, I dk). I don't expect whoever they nominate to be able to win anyway though Lean R

[coloradocowboi]

Pocan probably made the right choice. I think he’d be a great Senator, but the “Madison libruhl” attack would probably have been used relentlessly against him and would’ve at least been a bit effective.

It's like you people like in a world where Tammy Baldwin doesn't exist.

I don't think this seat is winnable period though.

[coloradocowboi]

Pocan probably made the right choice. I think he’d be a great Senator, but the “Madison libruhl” attack would probably have been used relentlessly against him and would’ve at least been a bit effective.

It's like you people like in a world where Tammy Baldwin doesn't exist.

I don't think this seat is winnable period though.

I’ve regularly said that Baldwin is underestimated, because she has proven herself to be a very good campaigner who has appeal outside of Madison and can create her own brand. If Pocan could end up doing that, great, but I don’t think that’s a given.

Then again, what do I know, I’m just a PINO.

I just don't understand the difference between Pocan's politics and "progressiveness" and hers.

Do I think he would underperform her? No. But ff so, only for one reason: election after election recently--e.g. Alex Morse and Jon Hoadley--has proven that attacks on gay men's sexuality are extremely potent.

[coloradocowboi]

Lasry appeals to the base, Black men who are NBA fans

We'll see.

I get it's your shtick to say quasi-racist things and stereotype leftists without going overboard to avoid the mods but you should probably  off anyway

He appeals to the base. Younger liberals, Black voters. There is nothing racist about what I said.

Just stupid lol...

[coloradocowboi]

Barnes is more than liberal, he is a radical left-wing socialist out of step with Wisconsin. He supports socialized medicine, which means the government in charge of health care and doctors. In every place that happens, you have waiting lists and rationing. In the United Kingdom, if a senior needs a HIP replacement, it takes 90 days. In Canada, it takes 200 days. The cost of socialized medicine that Barnes supports would be immense as the Urban Institute, a left leaning institute, scored it as costing $32 trillion in 10 years, $2.5 trillion in the first year. The total we raise from our income taxes is $1.5 trillion so Barnes' plan would require tripling taxes. Even if he believes he can do it with five points on the corporate rate, that doesn't even pass elementary schools math. Even if he believes that could be done by taxing the rich, if you took every person in America $1 million or more and took 100 % of their income, it would pay for 5 months of Barnes' socialized medicine plan. Under that plan, Barnes wants to put everyone who hasn't paid into Medicare on Medicare and that would bankrupt Medicare, would hurt seniors who paid into Medicare for their whole life and rely on it for their health care. And putting 200 million people on it, including illegal immigrants, could bankrupt Medicare.

Barnes voted against authorizing work-share programs, against amending Wisconsin's iron-ore mining regulations and against reducing state income taxes.

Barnes is weak on crime and law enforcement, in fact, the gubernatorial administration which Barnes is working for vetoed a bill that would have penalized cities and counties that defund police departments.

https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/tony-evers-vetoes-bill-that-would-have-penalized-cities-counties-that-defund-police-departments/article_30125a78-7312-53d1-9972-9b16e305d008.html

Barnes also introduced legislation to eliminate “monetary bail as a condition of release for a defendant charged with” a crime, no matter the severity of the crime. Yes, you read that correctly – a proposal to eliminate prosecutors’ ability to keep dangerous people in custody. This bill died in committee but came after current Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm supported similar views in his inaugural campaign. Those views came back to light last month after Chisholm set what he later called an “inappropriately low” bail amount ($1,000) in the case of Darrell Brooks, who allegedly killed six people in a Waukesha, WI Christmas parade rampage just weeks after a domestic violence arrest. If the Barnes bill passed in 2016, Brooks, along with many other criminals, would have been freely walking the streets of Wisconsin for the past 5 years.

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2015/related/proposals/ab981

And he also held a fundraiser with Robert Creamer, a felon who pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2005 and was sentenced to five months in prison. More recently, Creamer and others tied to Democracy Partners got caught on camera in 2016 talking about inciting violence at Trump events. It got so out of hand that they had to take a step back from helping Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

https://www.nrsc.org/press-releases/barnes-gang-of-radicals-and-a-felon-host-fundraiser-2021-11-16/

Unsurprising that Barnes is a puppet of the radical Defund the Police movement and is endorsed by movements advocating the abolition of ICE.

So you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig but it is still a pig.

The idea that somehow Barnes is "out of step" with Wisconsin but Ron Johnson is not is...

Exactly, but here is the key to how Barnes can win. Any time a left of center politician tries to do anything, the GOP calls them a communist radical. But the issues are popular with our voters. I think ultimately the more contentious and polarizing an election is, the more it starts to revert to the mean because turn out is high on both sides. I believe only Barnes can win this race, and to do so he needs to create a turnout operation that finds reasons both positive and Negative to get his key demographics out. Highlight his position, call Johnson a radical, deflect from the culture wars bs that doesn’t matter. Dems can win this race in Dane, Milwaukee, college towns, and suburbs, but they can’t win it chasing after voters who will appear to be “undecided” but are effectively GOP. Why bother contorting your platform to meet the political desires of people who are a 50-50 chance for you to get, at best, when being true to them might gin up your turnout? I never understood. It’s not gonna be a good year for our side, but it will only be 2010/14 bad if we allow turnout to remain low and give the base nothing to vote for

[coloradocowboi]

Honestly,
Is Mandela Barnes a strong candidate or not at all?

WI Republicans are (understandably) very confident that they can paint him as way too liberal for the state and as a rubber stamp for Biden. Here’s a very good analysis of this race which goes into some detail about the likely trajectory of the GE campaign and also sheds some light on why Ron Johnson is actually a very difficult candidate to run against despite being "controversial" (and arguably precisely because of that, which is something many on the left do not comprehend) -

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/crazy-isnt-enough-democrats-scrutinize-ron-johnsons-every-move-effort-rcna42165

This part stood out to me -

As for Johnson’s often controversial comments, Republicans shrug off most of them as utterances that outrage only Democrats and the media. Several Wisconsin operatives with knowledge of the political tracking cited focus groups with would-be voters that found a consistent response to a controversial statement the senator had made: Johnson must be doing something right if he’s ticking off that many people.

Triggering the libs can actually be an asset, who would have thought. The problem with their strategy is that running against Johnson's 'extremism' ("Crazy isn’t enough") does little to undermine the perception of him as an outsider-businessman who instead of having gone Washington is still fighting the worst excesses of Washington/the federal government and tells it like it is — someone who you can always trust to tell the truth and to fight for you. He reminds me a lot of Jon Tester in how he consistently manages to make people forget that he has been part of that same Washington for more than a decade.

The general vibe I’m getting from this article (and the race in general) suggests a far more favorable outlook for Republicans than seems to be the current consensus on this forum. In fact, I still think this race is quite an uphill battle for Democrats. However, the good news for them is that they don’t need this race for a majority.

Now sis, come on now. That is not Ron Johnson and you know it. This man literally just endorsed ending Medicare and SS.

He is the worst the Swamp has to offer. This is just straight up fantasy.

Yeah it’s not like Ron Johnson is only controversial because of some s*** he said. Is privatizing Medicare going to be perceived by seniors as “owning the libs?” I don’t think so

[coloradocowboi]

We let this moron win a primary unopposed??
https://twitter.com/kfile/status/1578451677417394176?s=21&t=3a-WdvftoqKnKHsC...

Without fail, whenever a progressive wins a primary fair and square all the #votebluenomatterwho come out to do Fox News' job for them. Never once appreciating the irony. Anyway he's not a "moron." Perhaps he just has convictions? I don't know why those would offend you as a Democrat, but anywho...

That's certainly not gonna be what wins the election for Mandela bc he's losing immigration-minded voters regardless of what happens. The crime thing seems to be more effective and relevant anyway

[coloradocowboi]

I think Johnson is a good example of someone who runs a good campaign but is a flawed candidate. In 2016, while he was outspoken and conservative, he was more articulate and intelligent sounding. Now he says all these crazy comments. He's certainly crafty and good at attacking his opponents weaknesses and making them unpalatable, but I still think a more "sane" republican who employed this strategy in this race would be demolishing Barnes

e.g. Mike Gallagher (and he would also be a better senator than Ron Johnson)