Walker survives recall

[EARL KITCHENS]

Way to go Wisconsin. Maybe this is a sign of things to come in November.

[no1son]

A seven point spread not much different than the previous election, and really within the margin of error on many of the polls. Walker outspent Barret by about 8 times with 2/3 of that coming from out of state. I suppose that points to a whole lot of money flowing into November from every deep pocket there is.

We end up getting the best government that somebody else will buy for us.

[wharfrat]

may have spent more, but Barrett had Washington and the media on his side.

[no1son]

Walker was retained by almost exactly the same percent that elected him two years ago. The media? The media go to the spectacle, that is always their bottom line. Are they above creating one for their own benefit? Not at all, although that wasn't necessary this time in Wisconsin.

It also pays to remember who gets paid for the advertising. Why the media of course and there was more of that in Wisconsin this time than anybody has ever seen before.

The biggest story of all is the amount spent. $34 million dollars. $20 million in out of state money for Walker alone. Out of state money for Barrett was well over $1 million by itself. Either number is outlandish and the disproportionate ratio has a hidden factor. Barrett's support got tapped out financially, but there was no end of the amount available to Walker, yet in all of that he only managed to add one percentage point over his previous win.

Someone or several are willing to spend whatever it takes and following Citizens United there are unlimited funds available to do just that. The Koch brothers may not have contributed anything directly, but they did funnel $3 through national front organizations now legal.

BTW there is a real danger here for Republicans between the gender and age gaps and widening shock at the amount of money available for Republican campaigns. IF the worm turns on them, they stand to generate a very dramatic curtailment in the form of revitalized election financing reforms. That will certainly bite across party lines, too. The wealthy faced a real grass roots uprising at the end of the 19th century, when they overplayed their hand in the various trusts. I am not going to hold my breath on that one, though. What I see is a very well entrenched aristocracy in this country and most of it is right in step with the Republican party. It's voting demographics may well be increasingly tending toward aging white men, but I probably will not be around long enough to see that hit the wall, if in fact it ever does.

What is the saying, when money talks what walks? The rest of us have to continually be cleaning our shoes. The whole thing stinks.

I've said my bit and I know we are over the political line on this, but I will neither object this time nor respond again.

[Badgerloader]

Walker raised about $30 million - Barrett about $4 million. What isn't included in the Barrett number is the money the unions spent paying the wages & expenses of many hundreds of out-of-state "organizers" living in WI for the past 17 months to run the recall petition drive and get out the vote efforts. Also not included are the 100's of vans and buses with drivers that came in from as far away as Ohio (that I saw) to haul "new" voters to register at the polls. What is known is that the unions did spend $21 million on TV and radio advertising. The money raised and spent was the same by both sides. The public employee unions picked a fight and lost badly.

[no1son]

Walker's 30 million doesn't include outside PAC moneys spent independently on his behalf any more than Barrett's 4 includes moneys from the unions spent independently. The union moneys by law have to be published but the PACs can do pretty much what they want and spend however much they want without disclosing much of anything. That isn't the way the Supreme Court ruled in Citizen's United, but that is the way big money has worked it. No matter how you cut it, with every cent added to either side the totals get more and more ridiculous.

The bottom line is that nobody will probably ever know the actual total.

Somebody has a whole lot of excess money to spend buying politicians and elections these days and it sure aint me.

[deathb4disco]

Way to go Wisconsin. Maybe this is a sign of things to come in November.

Yes and yes!

If Obamacare is overturned by the SC and Obama loses in November, it will be like Christmas came early!