Are the Winds Shifting Towards Wisconsin Democrats?
There's been quite a bit of bad news for the recall activists hoping to oust Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. A close primary at the beginning of the month divided party supporters and muddied the unified front activists formed when they collected over a million signatures to prompt the recall. Then there was the money—Walker spent much of 2012 testing his stump speech with out-of-state voters.
Thanks to a loophole, he could receive unlimited contributions while until the recall election was officially called, giving him months to raise over $14 million—more than some presidential candidates. While Tea Party groups continued to beat the drum and paint the race as a precursor to November, reports surfaced that the DNC wouldn't be showing up to help eventual Democratic nominee Tom Barrett, which left state Democrats "furious." With all the news, poll numbers showed a fairly consistent 5-point lead for the controversial governor for the first few weeks of May.
It looked fairly bleak. Despite enthusiasm, the recall activists were hugely outspent. There were hardly any undecided voters, which made turnout extremely important, and with the funding gap, the GOP seemed to have a huge advantage. Nationally, the perception was of a quixotic, lost cause.
But with five days to go before the election, things look a lot less bleak; optimists might even say things are looking up.
http://prospect.org/article/are-winds-shifting-towards-wisconsin-democrats
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