Dems win Wisconsin Senate majority after failing to oust Walker

[hue]

Source: Chicago Tribune

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Democrats on Monday took majority control of the Wisconsin state Senate, a minor consolation prize after failing on June 5 to oust Republican governor Scott Walker over his attacks on government unions.

A two-week recount of a disputed state Senate recall election held on the same day as the Walker vote showed that former state Senator Democrat John Lehman defeated incumbent Republican Senator Van Wanggaard by 819 votes, or 1 percent, according to the Racine County Clerk's office.
"I look forward to joining my Democratic colleagues in the new majority Senate, and begin bringing jobs back to the citizens of Racine County," Lehman said.

The result gives Democrats a 17-16 majority in the Senate, which may be short-lived since half of its members are up for re-election in November and Republicans have redrawn election lines to favor them. The result also has little meaning because the state Senate is not expected to reconvene until January.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-rt-us-usa-wisconsin-recallbre86118a-20120702,0,6018775.story

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Wanggaard has 5 working/business days to challenge this recount and it sounds like he is leaning towards challenging it.

[The Wielding Truth]

1. There should be time to reconstitute those districts, right?

[stockholmer]

5. No, they are a done deal, they will not be changed before the November 2012 elections

The Republicans hold a very large majority in the other house (State Assembly), so there is no chance of the districts being redrawn. The plans already survived multiple court cases as well.

[The Wielding Truth]

6. Disgusting....

[Archae]

2. Of course he'll challenge it.

Wahhhhnggard is going to pull an Al Franken 2.0 and run to the courts.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. Minor? Hardly. To the contrary, this is huge

The assholes can't call a special session and ram shit down wisconsin's throat. We can now prevent future damage.
The organization, effort, training, and positive result bode well for the future.

In so many ways, Wisconsin did the impossible, far more than I ever thought I could.

[Scuba]

4. Bingo. Check my sig line.