The Cleansing Continues

Last night I had the opportunity to catch up with a friend, Schotzy, about the major political changes that Wisconsin has been undergoing since February, and we couldn't help but shake our heads over the sad realization that the nation has yet to hear about the great things going on there.


Has the media touched on the subject since the unions' collective bargaining hissy fits since February? Not really. After chatting with Schotzy about how excited we were regarding the huge political wins in Wisconsin, we decided that it would be a great refresher to examine where Wisconsin is now, so I got his permission to blog about our conversation, since despite the media's silence, we think it's newsworthy. Maybe the mass media will eventually think so too (and stop swooning about ridiculous "news alerts" highlighting how New York City residents are responding to an earthquake yesterday with its Virginia epicenter).


As a reminder, back in February when Gov. Walker insisted that the state's budget be balanced, the Democrat strategy was:


1)  Stop the legislation from ever becoming law by fleeing the state..

2)  If #1 fails, take over the WI Supreme Court in the Jusitce David Prosser seat up for election and replace him with a far-lefty.

3)  Recall Republican senators and take back the state senate.

4)  Ride that wave to recalling Gov. Scott Walker.

5)  Ride that wave to wins in taking back the state house and holding onto Sen. Herb Kohl's seat in the 2012 election along with delivering the state to Dumbo...er, Oh-Bummer... er, Obama.

Well, how is that going?

1)  Failed.

2)  Failed.  Millions of dollars in Democrat and outside group funding wasted.

3)  Failed.  The Democrats won two seats, but Republicans still control the senate - despite tens of millions of dollars in Democrat and labor funding wasted.  (Total estimate of #2 and #3 is around $75 million from the left.  That's been a nice boost to the Scott Walker economy!)

4)  Momentum halted.  More and more news is coming out about how well the state finances and schools are doing with the new law.  Momentum will only continue to swing to the right.  Plus, the state Democrats depended on the national party for support in the recalls.  I've heard that nationals are reading the tea leaves as not favorable and don't want to waste even more money on it.  They're looking at #5 and really, really, really, REALLY want to hold onto that senate seat.

5)  See #4 above.

Now, what are the results?

On the surface, Democrats are claiming a win because they won two state senate seats.  To put their "win" in perspective though, the two seats they won were from a moderate Republican in a strongly Democrat district (La Crosse) and a Republican currently going through a messy divorce and whose wife was campaigning against him and claiming he was living outside his district with his mistress (he lost by a 51-49 split).  All for $75 million.  

But, what did they lose?  (besides the $75 million)


The top four donors to the Democrat party in WI were:

1)  Teacher's Union

2)  Public Employee Union

3)  Indian casinos

4)  Trial Lawyers

(Note: outside of #1, as I'm posting this, I don't have the exact order of the next three besides the fact that those are the top four.)


The collective bargaining law stripped the public unions from negotiating anything besides pay.  In addition, payroll increases were capped at the rate of inflation.  In other words, the only thing the unions can negotiate is basic pay, which has a reasonable cap. Considering that unions were also stripped of the power to automatically deduct the dues from people's paycheck so now they have to convince their lemmings to fork out the $1,000 on their own, where is the benefit for union members to paying the union $1,000 each year for a basic pay negotiation? 

Answer:  There is no benefit.

As a result, public employee union power is doomed.  They know it.  In addition to the article from JSOnline last week about the teacher's union cutting 40% of it's workforce, check out this article:

"Members of the Teaching Assistants Association representing University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate students voted by an undisclosed margin not to seek a formal election to keep their official status with the state, one of the group's top leaders said. 

The TAA was one of the most active groups during the massive demonstrations against Walker's legislation earlier this year. But co-president Adrienne Pagac said Monday that the law set a very high standard for achieving an election for which the union would have received little official power in return."

This law has cost Democrats two of their top four donors/propagandists/organizers right off the bat.  Done.  Finished.  See ya later.  Drive a stake in their hearts and burn the corpse to make sure they never come back for more blood.


For those of you who listen to Mark Belling on the radio over the internet, you may notice that parts of the above-mentioned analysis were from one of his radio shows, including the Top Four Donors and ideas on the disintegration of the Democrat machine.  He also mentioned that the #3 donor, Indian Casinos, have seen the writing on the wall.  During the recall elections, they gave very little money to help the Dems.  They know who is out of power with a very dismal future.  Chalk up another loss in the Democrats' Fab Four.  Only Big Trial Lawyers are left.

Final Score:

Democrat Gains:  2 weak state senators (but not control of the state senate itself) (for one year)

Democrat Losses:  $75 million and three of their top four top campaign donors and "get-out-the-vote" apparatuses.  (permanent)

Does it still look like the Dems came out the winners?

WI will be swinging from a leans-Democrat state to a leans-Republican state for the foreseeable future.  This is a huge loss for Democrats as they need WI for national elections.

~Gee (thanks, Schotzy, for your contributions as well!)