President Barack Obama’s campaign tried to excuse and downplay the Democrats’ 7-point defeat in Wisconsin, while Republican supporters argued the results will swing the state toward the GOP in November.
“While tonight’s outcome was not what we had hoped for … hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites from all walks of life took a stand against the politics of division and against the flood of secret and corporate money,” said a statement released by the Obama campaign’s Wisconsin director, Tripp Wellde.
Wellde cited exit polls that showed that Obama would win 52 percent of the vote against Gov. Mitt Romney. The poll “clearly demonstrate a very steep pathway for Mitt Romney to recover in the state.”
But the exit polls underestimated Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s victory and predicted that the race would be much closer than it was.
Several Democrats, including Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, blamed the defeat on the GOP’s advantage in advertising funds, despite the Democrats’ offsetting advantage in union funds and staff.
The defeat “could be” a factor in November, said O’Malley, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association.
GOP backers said the Wisconsin win is more bad news for the Obama campaign.
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