We now know that the final MU Poll was a reasonably accurate forecast for the governors' race when it reported a considerable uptick in enthusiasm by republican "likely" voters less than a week before the election.
Some of us sounded the alarm. Others said don't believe it. Still others said the race was tied, but I thought otherwise and posted here that there is nothing magical about it. That, IF that lack of enthusiasm for voter turn-out continues to hold on election day for Democrats - Burke will certainly lose. Well, that's all history now.
Statewide, Mary Burke still scored 47% of the vote. That's a phenomenal number considering she was a virtual unknown running against one of the GOP's top rock stars in Scott Walker. Her army of volunteers did an absolutely remarkable job against the national Kochtopus machine.
Rock County voters also responded to the challenge and posted numbers that essentially bested their turn-out against the 2010 Tea Party wave and matched the percentages the county posted in the 2012 Recall election. A solemn hat tip.
Of note, the cities of Evansville and Edgerton both posted numbers favoring Burke almost 2 to 1.
Despite republican candidate Brian Fitzgerald sending out a personal Facebook invite to Paul Ryan, Scott Walker and national RNC chairman, Reince Priebus, for a Janesville pre-election rally, Janis Ringhand defeated the republican wave Kochtopus candidate, 59% to 41% to keep the 15th Senate District in democratic hands.
Paul Ryan on the other hand did regain some momentum he lost in 2012. On Tuesday, he defeated Rob Zerban 63% to 37% overall to keep the 1st CD seat under his boot.
The 2014 Rock County tally for both candidates was practically a toss-up (50.4/49.4). In 2012 however, Zerban scored 51.50% of the Rock County vote to Ryan's 46.93%. Despite Zerban's defeat, Ryan still lost his hometown and his ward (57.5% to 42.5%) to Zerban for the second time in his political career.
Rock County voters also voted in favor of two statewide non-binding referendums (more Affordable Care Act money and raising the minimum wage) by roughly the same margin (65% to 35%).
One sore spot for county democrats could be Beloit. Latest reports show Beloit had only a 34% voter turn out in this election when most area communities were reporting 60+. That's unacceptable.
View Rock County Election results here.
2 comments:
Read today's gagzette? They have the gop making huge gains in Rock County and dems old and falling behind. spin, spin, spin.
Yes, I saw it. Walker has gone from 45.60% to 43.42% to 42.75% in RC since the local GOP started a GOTV program. I might have to donate to it to encourage whatever they're doing. Add to tuesday's numbers that RC's largest "urban" areas were down in turn-out shows the rural areas made up the difference on the plus side for dems.
Had Beloit/JVL responded in the 60% t-o range, it could have been Burke 62% to Walker's 36%.But still not enough to make a huge difference statewide.
But there is cause for some alarm in Janesville and particularly Beloit. Enthusiasm is down and political will seems to be waning. That RC voters are well-informed and "on" to the local media spin appears to be a saving grace. I could go on and on.
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