creisinger / Depositphotos.com
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – I have a well meaning email from a listener – he says I should stop berating Trump voters for not turning out during this week’s spring elections. He says the voting irregularities yesterday were in mostly conservative and Republican districts; and he suspects ongoing vote-counting irregularities in Milwaukee and Madison.
While those are problems that still exist, they don’t account for Susan Crawford winning by 230,000 votes. She crushed Brad Schimel in Tuesday’s balloting.
And I’m not berating anyone. The facts are simple. There are some conservatives who are very enthusiastic about voting when Donald Trump is on the ballot and are much less likely to get to the polls when he isn’t. If the Trump coalition that delivered the state to him in November showed up, the results in April would have been different. To me it is non-sensical to vote for Trump and his agenda, and to put it at risk by allowing liberals to control the state’s highest bench.
So why was the state superintendent race so much closer? Because Dr. Jill Underly is a poor candidate. She stood for reelection despite dumbing down the state’s standardized tests. For her that was a handicap on Election Day. To me it was disqualifying. She still managed to beat Brittany Kinzer by 126,000 votes; about half the margin in the state Supreme Court race.
So why did the voter ID amendment pass by such a wide margin? Because even liberals don’t want to share their voting clout with people who aren’t in the country legally. Voter ID is a no–brainer for the left and the right.
Election results tell us what happened; why is open to interpretation. My best guess is this: Liberals got their butts kicked last November, and since then everything it the world of politics has tilted against them. And the political left is not cowed; they’re angry. As in most elections, the side that’s more fired up tends to win.
Chris Conley
Comments