Big labor loses, Americans (and esp. Wisconsonites) win

[CaptainHaplo]

Scott Walker wins by a fairly large margin in Wisconsin. Big labor made it a battle - and they lost it in a big way.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/05/politi...html?hpt=hp_t1

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...eported-heavy/

Wow - fiscal sanity and expecting government workers to contribute to their own pensions are looked upon as good things. Who woulda thunk it?

[nikimcbee]

Not even the 119% voter turn out in Madison could save them.

Union dues well spent!

Just think of all of the cool stuff they could have purchased....
New car, new boat, cool vacations.
Oh well.

Congrats Aramike.

@ Haplo, by big labo(u)r, you mean public sector, not private sector unions.

[CaptainHaplo]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

Not even the 119% voter turn out in Madison could save them.

Union dues well spent!

Just think of all of the cool stuff they could have purchased....
New car, new boat, cool vacations.
Oh well.

Congrats Aramike.

@ Haplo, by big labo(u)r, you mean public sector, not private sector unions.

Yes it was public sector unions that "took the hit" when it came to the original reforms - but private sector unions were indeed a significant part of the recall process. The Teamsters Union was actively working on behalf of the recall effort, for example.

When it comes to the lessening of power of unions - both public and private lost a lot of political clout since both sides were so invested.

[gimpy117]

well bummer there, but not like I didn't see it coming.

I dunno, I wouldn't say "I'm a union man", but the right to organize I feel is as important now as it ever was.

[mookiemookie]

Elections can be bought. What a wonderful world that the Citizens United decision has brought us.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Elections can be bought. What a wonderful world that the Citizens United decision has brought us.

I don't know if we can state without a doubt that elections can be bought.

But maybe we can:

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/ex...?cid=N00009638

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/

[Catfish]

Isn't it nice how the man with the most money or (generating enough of it) will become 'democratically elected

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Looking at the subject line:

Wow, I didn't really the two (2) Koch brothers represent all Americans!! I wonder where my unearned $22,000,000,000.00 is?

[August]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Elections can be bought. What a wonderful world that the Citizens United decision has brought us.

Sounds like sour grapes to me Mookie. Taking the out of state money out of the picture, Walker still raised over 10 million dollars from Wisconsinites whereas Barrett only raised a little under 2.9 mil.

[Takeda Shingen]

Even though I think that Walker is a short-sighted idiot for gutting education, I am glad that he won. Recall elections should be reserved for official misconduct, not becausey you disagree with policy. Public officials are elected to set policy; if you do not like said policy, vote him out at the next election. Don't try to run an end-around on the election process.

[Bubblehead1980]

I love how some among us and the MSNBC goons are whining the election was bought.They fail to see how a left leaning state's citizens looked at the situation and voted for Walker because his reforms have worked.They know this, but refuse to acknowledge it.Walker has not been governor that long but his reforms haved worked and are working, only people really mad are the union fools because they want their gravy train to continue.

BTW...While the real world ramifications of the Citizens United decision are unfortunate, the constitutional reasoning by the court was sound and thus it was a correct ruling.I have never heard anyone challenge the decision on the merits, simply by what the decision means for our elections.Frankly, in the world of con law, they are irrelevant.Tired of people who just do not get it being critical of the court, they did their job, they went with the constitution.

[CaptainHaplo]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Elections can be bought. What a wonderful world that the Citizens United decision has brought us.

Indeed an election can be "bought" - Big Labor Unions - both public and private - paid lots and lots of money to buy the organization that got the recall going. After all - getting all those people to go door to door and get signatures - or sign them with made up names themselves - isn't cheap. Bussing in union members from out of state so they can have near riots in the state capital building doesn't come cheap.

Big labor paid for the game - then got its clock cleaned.

You can "buy" an election - but you can't buy the results.
However, some will try to stuff the ballot box. No comment on the Madison turnout, huh?

For the record though - I agree with you on the Citizens United decision. Anything that isn't an individual should not be giving money. Period.

[yubba]

We got a fight going on, here in Florida, over voter registration with the DOJ {aka the department of injustice} it says you don't have to be a citizen of the United States or show a photo ID to vote, it would be to much trouble to the citizens, I guess it's to much trouble to have your drivers liscense on you when you drive to the polls to vote, or show it when you buy beer, get on a airplane.

[Bilge_Rat]

Its too simple to say the election was bought, there is never a direct correlation between money spent and votes, it it was, rich people would get their candidate in all the time.

Walker won fair and square, increased his vote percentage even though the turnout increased from 50 to 58%, so more people voted for him in 2012 than in 2010.

The Unions overreached, not just with the recall, but spending millions to try to nominate a blatant pro-union candidate instead of just rallying around the best candidate to beat Walker.

Exit polls also so a large percentage of voters, I think around 60%, disagree with a recall, except in a case of official malfeasance. That had an impact as well.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

Its too simple to say the election was bought, there is never a direct correlation between money spent and votes, it it was, rich people would get their candidate in all the time.

That's pretty much how it works.

In nearly every election the person with the most money will win. Dollars don't vote, but dollars do allow one to shape the message the public gets in whatever way they want, no matter how divorced from the truth it may be. Give someone enough money and ad-time, and they can get the public to believe anything. If you don't see how having more money than your opponent in an election is an advantage, then you're not living in reality.

Walker won fair and square, increased his vote percentage even though the turnout increased from 50 to 58%, so more people voted for him in 2012 than in 2010.

And most of the money he raised came from out-of-state - people who could never vote for him anyways. Hence the point - the election was bought.

The Unions overreached, not just with the recall, but spending millions to try to nominate a blatant pro-union candidate instead of just rallying around the best candidate to beat Walker.

Exit polls also so a large percentage of voters, I think around 60%, disagree with a recall, except in a case of official malfeasance. That had an impact as well.

On this, I agree. They picked a crappy candidate to go against him.