In a day otherwise filled with carnage, some good news in Wisconsin:
Susan Crawford, the liberal candidate for a pivotal seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, overcame $25 million in spending from Elon Musk and defeated her conservative opponent, The Associated Press reported, in a totemic contest that became a critical test of the nation’s prevailing political winds.
Judge Crawford, who serves in Dane County, handily defeated Judge Brad Schimel of Waukesha County, who ran on his loyalty to President Trump and was powered by record spending in the race from Mr. Musk, the president’s billionaire policy aide. The barrage of spending in the race may nearly double the previous record for a single judicial election. With over 90 percent of the vote counted on Tuesday evening, Judge Crawford held a lead of roughly 8 points.
“Today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court,” she said in her victory speech on Tuesday night. “Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”
It goes without saying that Elon and DOGE will do something awful punishing the people of Wisconsin for rejecting him. Sooner rather than later, to send a message, I imagine. Florida, however, remains Florida, and elected two imbeciles.
That state is such a depressing sinkhole for left wing election funds. But you gotta fight.
What are you all up to?
War for Ukraine Day 1,132: Putin/Russia Continue to Pound Kharkiv
Steve in the ATL
As a Chicago native I don’t normally acknowledge Wisconsin, but they did well here. Way to go, badgers! Love, FIB
SW
God I hate Florida. One giant real estate swindle.
oldster
“That state is such a depressing sinkhole for left wing election funds. But you gotta fight.”
And you gotta set your sights on what’s achievable. In this case, what was achievable was shrinking the margin of victory by *a lot*, and scaring the crap out of some vulnerable Republicans.
That was achievable, and we achieved it. The left wing election funds made a difference.
cain
Proud of Wisconsin. Luckily they aren’t subject to floods, earthquakes and what not.
cain
@oldster:
The GOP is screwed. They just don’t know it yet. They have been telling their constituents that they are the real Americans but they all rely on govt welfare more than the liberals do.
When those checks stop coming their offices are going to be flooded. Seeing that it is a Trump administration these folks will think that Trump will help them.
That would be a no. Someone should tell them about the prosperity doctrine.
RepubAnon
Florida is a good testbed for campaigning in heavily Republican strongholds. We need to revive Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy while avoiding spending so much in long shots that we starve other races of funds. However, we do need to avoid giving Republicans guaranteed safe districts via undisputed elections. If nothing else, it makes state-level elections winnable.
H.E.Wolf
Hooray Wisconsin!
Putain souris (joke from earlier thread) and I will undoubtedly be writing postcards for the NEXT 3 years’ worth of WI Supreme Court races. :)
Mouse and Wolf (and a whole lot of other jackals) are in it to win it….
cain
Glad to hear that we won Wisconsin. Yay !
cain
@RepubAnon: 100%
We need to start looking how we can turn Florida and Texas
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@cain:
Both statewide offices too! Supreme Court and the Dem incumbent for the Superintendent of Public Instruction was re-elected over the Moms for National Socialism candidate.
A lot of other MNS candidates also lost at the local level.
ETA: From the people on the ground, the Superintendent race was under the radar, so it’s doubly good news
Nettoyeur
@cain: Florida will deny climate change and sea rise untii Miami beach floods. Texas needs Canadian crude, a,lot leas of which will be flowing.
H.E.Wolf
I’ll add that all of this GOTV stuff is do-able with small, human-sized efforts. Being a superhero is NOT one of the requirements.
If what you did for the April 1 elections was to write comments online, please consider doing some actual, concrete tasks for upcoming elections. Your help will be welcome and useful!
Good night, all….
Omnes Omnibus
“Light! More light!”
HopefullyNotcassandra
@oldster: and maybe some Floridians were given food for thought. If Democrats don’t play, there will never be a way to win.
Eric S.
@Steve in the ATL: Ditto!
hitchhiker
I have pneumonia! It was something of a relief to have it confirmed by x-ray this morning, altho I still feel like black shit.
I’m a geezer, and I think the rules are different now: no fucking around with pneumonia. It can take you out.
That said, I enjoyed drifting in and out of sleep today, listening to Cory Booker tell all the truth, and then finding out that our stupid co-president pissed away 20 million dollars, only to watch his candidate lose.
RaflW
Someone asked in an earlier thread: Paul Ryan is from Janesville, WI. Rock County just voted 61%-39% for Crawford!
On that fine note, good night! (It’s windy as heck here in neighboring, stubbornly red Walworth County.)
HopefullyNotcassandra
Doing much better now. I doubted we could take the Florida panhandle just because of the musings I once read of Maximum Bob. We moved the needle mightily though.
Thank you to the Badger state ! Tonight is a victory for our democratic republic. Perhaps providence is still alive and well in this country after all? A billionaire cannot buy Wisconsites. I will sleep better tonight.
WaterGirl
@oldster: well said!
Parfigliano
Maybe quit putting money into lost causes like Fl-6 because feels. IT WAS NEVER GOING TO WIN
But feelings. Fuck em. Win.
Parfigliano
@cain: They will blame Dems but sure your vision will prevail.
ArchTeryx
Apparently, Wisconsin voters were massively engaged. Finally, at last, enough of them knew the stakes. They already had turned the court liberal, and apparently the Supreme Court voters knew that all that would be reversed as fast as an autopen could sign if they promptly elected a MAGAt.
Everything is topsy-turvy now. The most engaged voters are on our side and can really push hard in off-year elections. But any time Trump is on the ballot, we’re swamped by MAGAt non-voters showing up just to vote for him. The exact opposite of the way things were for decades. Low turnout now favors us.
frosty
That’s exactly how it started with Flagler et al.
Tim C
@ArchTeryx: And the worst of the Trump cultists aren’t really politically engaged beyond loving him.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Trump White House brushes off Wisconsin loss amid warning signs around Elon Musk’s role
Lots of GOP/MAGA copium:
Like I said, lots of copium lol.
Maybe I’m off base, but since when is an 8 point victory “competitive”?
Also, I love the “Elon is a happy warrior” and the “uphill battle” crap. Quite a far cry from his “It’ll be the end of western civilization as we know it if the liberal wins” rhetoric from the weekend
janesays
The two Florida races were not good wins for the Republicans – Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz won their last re-elections to those seats by 30+ points each, and that was just five months ago. Obviously it was gonna be closer without incumbents on the ballot, but the victory margins were cut in half because of the utter toxicity of our current co-presidents. Democrats should feel really energized and hopeful about the midterms next year. We could be looking at seat flip margins comparable to the GOP blowout in 2010.
lamh47
Aww mahn…RIP Val Kilmer. I know every one will probably mention something bigger but my very first introduction to Val Kilmer that I can remember was actually in that parody movie Top Secret. I freaking loved that movie 😁!
And of course his Batman movie still has my FAVORITE of all the Batman soundtrack songs. Ain’t nothing beating Kiss From A Rose for me.
WaterGirl
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): All bullshit denials from FFOTUS. They gave the game away when they dumped Stefanik earlier this week. They are on the ropes.
and I couldn’t be happier about it!
WaterGirl
We’re having rain and a thunderstorm, and there’s something so comforting about it after the stress of today.
Gravie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOYus1BE7jk Fuck ‘em, Bucky.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@lamh47:
Oh no! Wiki says it was from pneumonia. He was great in Top Gun
RIP
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I remember him in Heat.
Steve in the ATL
@frosty: I’ll never forgive Henry Flagler for founding Palm Beach.
Steve in the ATL
@Chetan Murthy: his best role was of course Real Genius
lamh47
@Steve in the ATL: yes!!! I believe Real Genius was his 2nd film after Top Secret. Real Genius was followed by TopGun!
Craig
@Chetan Murthy: Doc Holliday in Tombstone is a transcendental performance. ‘I’m your huckleberry’
Connor
@Steve in the ATL:
“A girl’s got to have her standards.”
I literally fell off the couch laughing at that deadpan line, but it was Val Kilmer’s reaction face which sold it.
Chetan Murthy
@Craig: I never saw any of those films. The only film I saw in the first half of the 90s was _Malcolm X_. Was too busy workin’, and in France for 3yr of that time (during which I was workin’ -like crazy-).
Phylllis
@lamh47: Highly recommend his autobiography, I’m Your Huckleberry, as well as the documentary, Val about him. The definition of iconoclast.
sab
OT: My grand-daughter who died.
We did actually manage to have not just a showing but a funeral for my grandadaughter on Sunday.
Immediate family only and also a few close friends her fiance and siblings invited.
So sixty plus people, all mostly crying. It was very sad but very healing. All of us got to see all the others who loved her. And no announcement. This was just word of mouth between people who loved her. Amazingly eclectic group of peopla, all devastated.
Elderly white people like us who were grandparents of the mixed race children. Mothers of her half siblings. Her actual half siblings. Their fiances, mostly Black. Co-workers from her coffee shop waitress job. A trans friend friend she had from on-line. Her fiance and his siblings. My SIL who saved her from a suicide attempt when she was fourteen. And we didn’t publish an obit so none of her classmates from high school even know now that she has died.
She was everything I love about America, people from all different backgrounds coming together because they have common bonds.
Wild mix of people, all of whom loved her. This was who she was.
I am crying again. Such a waste of promise.
Elizabelle
@sab: Sab, I am so sorry. Terrible loss, but comforting at how she was loved. Wishing you and her loved ones peace in the coming months. The loss of someone so young is devastating.
Donatellonerd
does anyone know of (have a link to) a compilation of highlights of Booker’s filibuster that we could watch at lunch here in Paris? Thx.
Donatellonerd
@sab: just to send hugs and say I am so sorry…
Baud
Way to go, Cheeseheads.
This almost makes up for Omnes.
Baud
@sab:
I can’t imagine. My condolences.
Baud
Via reddit, Meghan McCain FAFO.
Baud
I’m pleased we won for the additional reason that a loss would have cast a pall on Booker’s accomplishment.
Smalla
@ArchTeryx: Yes, that’s exactly right. When Musk came to Green Bay on Sunday (giving two different people $1,000,000 for signing a petition), hundreds of people protested him. Overall, there was a 50% voter turnout statewide. They were running out of ballots though in Milwaukee County due to a historic turnout in a spring election. My ward in Madison had a turnout of 80%.
rikyrah
@hitchhiker:
🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽😥😥
rikyrah
Go Wisconsin👏🏾👏🏾
rikyrah
@janesays:
That’s how I see it. This was done with only 3 months of their harm. Both those candidates need to run again and spend all their time until November 2026 pointing out the damage
prostratedragon
Marvin Gaye, 4/2/39 — 4/1/84
rikyrah
@sab:
I am so sorry for your loss🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽😪😪😪
Ramalama
Ben Wickler should get a ton of mad props.
Mad props currency converter is running at 1 MP for 8.7 Tesla trucks, or 12,551 trump coins.
Ramalama
@sab: 60+ people on word of mouth? You all gathered together and shared your broken hearts? Her death sucks, and it’s never not going to suck, and yet you’ve got those connections now. Seems like your world has expanded in a decent, though never-gonna-be-enough, way. I’m so sorry.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@lamh47: I think Real Genius may have been the first Val Kilmer movie I saw. Bummer that he’s passed. He must have been pretty young still. Though I’m vaguely aware he had some chronic health issues of some sort it’s still a shock that someone in his Hollywood age cohort is gone already though he’s obviously not the first.
lowtechcyclist
@sab: So sorry to hear about your granddaughter. She was clearly loved by many. And all of you must now be feeling the hole in your lives that her death has left.
What you said about your SIL makes me think about my cousin who saved me from suicide when I was fifteen. Now I’m crying too.
Paul in Jacksonville
@lamh47: He played Jim Morrison in the 1991 Oliver Stone film “The Doors”. Find it and watch it, Kilmer was amazing.
Ramalama
@lamh47: me too! I loved that movie.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: I get it.
Gvg
@RepubAnon: I do think it will help even more in a full election where both parties have to decide where to spend funds. If the whole Republican brand is stinky, they may just let someone with a bad personality like fine lose.
on the other hand democrats need to build permanent infrastructure and need to use these races s an opportunity and not just walk out afterwards. Keep contacts and connect people? Florida’s problem seems to be the local Democratic Party died when Lawton Chiles died. What is left seems to be left overs and is sometimes petty crooks too, as opposed to big crooks like the GOP. The petty crooks can get caught serve or pay, then re run and win because no one else is willing to run and fight the republicans here, and they do tend to fight the republicans on a small scale not roll over so I have voted for some I knew were still petty crooks…it’s not terribly inspiring and hard to argue support with many people.
I haven’t got the slightest idea why the party seem to die suddenly around the late 90’s.
Gvg
@sab: I am so sorry for you, but glad the funeral happened and went well. I know the problems were stressing you so much. Take care of yourself and your husband. Best wishes.
different-church-lady
WASTE MORE OF YOUR BILLIONS, NAZI FUCKSTICK!
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: So glad they did!
Mousebumples
No one I’d rather have fighting on the trenches with me.
Good news, amidst all the annual SCOWIS ejection elections between now and 2030, the next 2 years’ elections will include conservative incumbents. So 5-4 liberal court baseline is assured through 2028.
And hopefully MAGA Rebecca Bradley can be yeeted off the Court in next year’s election.
AM in NC
@Steve in the ATL: And they don’t even MENTION Real Genius in the NYT Obit!!!!!!!!
Baud
@AM in NC:
The NYT is garbage.
Mousebumples
Agreed. Postcards to Voters is currently writing for Erick Allen in Georgia. They typically have at least 1 campaign going.
Think about getting involved with your local Dems. I’m on my local data team, which is great. Mostly synchronizing data between platforms at this point, but that might be changing now that this election is done. That was a short term “help now” thing, as the data team grew from 1 person to 4, post November.
There are lots of jobs, I’d expect, and hopefully something that fits what you can do. Staffing your local office is good to greet people who are walk-ins or wanting to pickup yard signs. Canvassing, social media outreach, phone banking… Hopefully you can find a task that appeals to you.
Mousebumples
@RaflW: thanks for this! I remembered his district included Kenosha & Racine but forgot the Janesville part.
narya
@sab: thank you for sharing this with us. Those occasions ARE both heartbreaking and a step in healing, and oh so hard. Sending hugs if you want them…
Mousebumples
@sab: I’m so sorry to hear about your loss, but I’m glad to hear that the services felt healing for you as you grieve. Thinking of you and your family.
Dorothy A. Winsor
My guess is that Musk’s efforts and his presence in Wisconsin hurt the Rs more than the Ds.
YY_Sima Qian
Great news out of Wisconsin! May it be a portent of things to come.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I hope Republicans believe that.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@sab: I am so sorry for your loss. I hope the service was healing.
YY_Sima Qian
Less welcome news out of UCLA, the suppression of academic freedom start by targeting views sympathetic of Palestinians, but will not end there:
The fallout on U.S. soft power & influence of Western liberalism in general:
YY_Sima Qian
Some of the diplomatic forces mobilized against sympathy for Palestinians (gift link to NYT article below):
YY_Sima Qian
Not sure it it has been mentioned in BJ, but there was a massive earthquake in Myanmar a few days, caused great damage & killed over 2000 people. The U.S. is, of course, MIA in the disaster relief, such a contrast to the 2004 tsunami:
YY_Sima Qian
@sab: I am so sorry about your loss!
RevRick
@oldster:
@WaterGirl: I have no objection to throwing some dollars at long-shot races. I do have two caveats.
1). Democrats are easy dupes for pouring money into races against GOP candidates we love to hate. Millions were dumped into races against Mitch McConnell, MTG, and Ted Cruz. That is the height of foolishness.
2). The result is that boring toss-up races are often starved for funds. We need to pay attention to the Cook Report, which indicates races we need to hold, those that are up for grabs, and those where GOP candidates may be vulnerable. Those races are where are first dollars should go.
3). There is some indication that heavy Democratic investment and spending may be somewhat self-defeating by activating GOP voters. Democratic voters are super engaged. They don’t need encouragement.
4). I thought Crawford would win by at least 12%. She didn’t. So, WaterGirl, you get to tell me what race I should donate $250 to.
Torrey
@sab:
Sab, I am so sorry to hear about your granddaughter. (It sounds from the phrasing that you may have mentioned her passing on a previous thread that I missed.) It sounds like she really made a difference in many, many lives. Wishing peace and comfort to you, your family, and her many friends and loved ones.
Omnes Omnibus
@RevRick: Win by at least 12? Wow, I get accused of wild optimism on occasion, but that was a really wild prediction in a state that is so evenly divided. What Crawford actually did was amazing enough.
RevRick
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, Protasiewicz won by 11, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
Betty
Dead thread, but I just have to say what I find most annoying about Randy Fine winning is that I read repeatedly that even his fellow pols hate him. And the Dem is a really good guy. Oh, well, as some have said, folks in that area cannot bring themselves to vote Dem no matter what.
Nettoyeur
. So Elon paid $25M to get his butt caned by a woman in Wisconsin.
Latest is that he will step down from DOGE to spend more time with his harem of baby mamas, 10+children and money.