As expected, two Democratic incumbents in Wisconsin’s state Senate held on to their seats last night. The seats had been up for revenge recall elections after Democrats attempted to recall six Republican state Senators a week earlier.
The recalls resulted from Walker’s budget bill, which attempted to shore up the finances of local governments in Wisconsin by giving them more legal control over employee compensation. Walker’s reforms stripped public employee unions of bargaining privileges over employee benefits and work rules. After their controversial enactment, during which all Democratic state senators fled to neighboring Illinois, has already cost the unions their contractual monopolies over employee health insurance in some school districts, resulting in millions of dollars in savings and averting teacher layoffs.
Recommended Stories
Last week’s union-backed effort failed to take back the state Senate for Democrats, but it did flip two highly vulnerable seats at the cost of an estimated $20 million. One of the seats went strongly for Barack Obama, the other was held by a state Senator whose messy personal life was made public at just the wrong time.
Republicans hoped to undo the Democrats’ gains tonight. It would have been gravy for them after their unexpected victory last week, but their chances were always considered remote. One of the Democratic incumbents, Robert Wirch, held a reasonably Democratic-leaning seat. The other, Jim Holperin, faced an untested Tea Party candidate with a penchant for making wild statements.
The lesson? You can unseat two shaky state senators if you’re willing to mobilize in the off-season and spend a lot of money, but voters just don’t care as much about union priorities as the Democrats had hoped. A recall attempt against Gov. Walker, which would come sometime next year, would be a very expensive and uphill battle. Support for it is gradually evaporating, according to the same Democratic polling firm that has accurately gauged the outcome of each of the eight recall races so far.
That won’t necessarily stop the unions from trying.
