2012 Election

[laceblade]

Back in May, I made some election predictions.

I thought that Scott Walker would win the recall election; he did.

I thought that the Democrats would take the State Senate in June, only to lose it in November; they did.

I thought Obama would win re-election; he did.


I didn't make a prediction about the Tammy Baldwin/Tommy Thompson race in this blog, but I commented on it frequently on Twitter - I thought that Baldwin would lose to Thompson.
She has done jack-shit as a legislator, and is extremely liberal.
Because I thought that she would lose, I was pleased when Tommy Thompson defeated the Club for Growth-backed GOP candidate in the primary.

But then Thompson was a complete jackhole in every debate, and Tammy pulled it out it in the end! Glad to have been wrong about Tammy Baldwin.
She is the US's first openly gay senator. Also Wisconsin's first woman senator.
I'm also glad to have voted for her successor in the House: Mark Pocan. This is the first time that a gay legislator has succeeded another gay legislator for the same seat. WISCONSIN DISTRICT 2 REPRESENT!

Glad to see that Nate Silver and Wisconsin's Marquette Law Poll (run by one of my fave former profs) were right. Really hoping for political science to become more mainstream, instead of people like Peggy Noonan and George Will blowing hot air all over the place. They make for better TV, but people seriously freak out waiting for election results. NEEDS TO STOP.

---

This was Wisconsin's sixth election of the year. People in Ohio/etc. complaining about ads can suck it. I am very, very ready for advertisements to be done. (But you can bet your ass I will still tweet incessantly about politics.)


I know one of the tags says "locked;" it's not supposed to, it's okay this post is unlocked.

Comments

[hederahelix]

There were only two things I voted for that didn't go my way; one was a measure to move many of our municipal offices onto the same ballot as the primary and general state/federal election days.

Alas, that measure failed.

This sucks because a normal election year for me involves 4 election days. I feel your pain. It's not as bad as Wisconsin, since, you know, the number of ads and calls and the amount of national news coverage isn't even in the same ballpark. On the other hand, literally, every year I've lived here for over 10 years, we've had four elections a year in every 2 and 4 year cycle.

I'm a political junkie, but that's way too much voting.

[laceblade]

Ugh, that really sucks. I mean, I like voting but I recognize that I'm lucky to have employers who don't gaf if I'm late because I'm voting; I'm physically able to stand in line as long as I need to, etc.
Voter fatigue aside, elections cost a lot of money, and I'm surprised people didn't vote for that, especially with your state's fiscal problems!

[hederahelix]

It's really a case study in what's wrong with politics in California. The measure would have moved *most* municipal elections to the same dates. Constitutions and such prevented moving all of them, so it would still mean 4 elections a year, but it was a step closer to 2 elections per year.

Since there's only one city newspaper, there was only one article on the measure, and our local newspaper is much more conservative than the electorate in my city. The local paper didn't support the measure; the ballotpedia entry cribbed judiciously to make it sound like the local paper panned it, when that wasn't quite true.

I have a flexible work schedule too, and my employers are also very in favor of voting. We have a very strong union, and my supervisor is very pro-union, so I have nothing to fear, but that's not true of everyone in my state. I will say this: my polling places are always very close to my house. They're all within walking distance for anyone without mobility issues--even in the small elections when there are fewer places.

But turn out for those elections is, unsurprisingly, very low, and I know voter fatigue has a lot to do with it.

The measure had ZERO publicity, though. And I suspect most voters don't do research if they haven't already heard about it somewhere else.

Like I said, I'm sure it's been way worse in Wisconsin over this period of time; just walking around Wisconsin for part of a weekend this summer drove home how wall to wall your political media had been.

But it's frustrating to me when we've got a chance to move towards going to a more reasonable number of elections each year, and we don't take it.

[jesse_the_k]

The exhaustion of this cycle has been grueling for all of us.

It's left me with a firm conviction that we (US) must create a different election system — I'm not even talking about the Electoral College. I'm thinking an independent commission that runs & supervises elections. Decouple the oversight of elections from those competing in them. And for the love of Mike, can we please take a hint from every other English-speaking country and do a six-weeks-and-we're-done campaign?

I'm sure you can tell me 43 ways that would be impossible — there's constitutional amendments involved even if the electoral college isn't touched. Many folks have been groaning about how the $2 billion wasted on advertising could have been better spent, and there's a long list. Developing a workable election system would be one of them.

[give_and_take]

No kidding about ads, I am so sick of it.

I am still bitter Walker won recall

[bibliofile]

I thought you were a genius about this stuff when you were right about Walker & Neumann in the governor's race last year. I *still* think you're a genius about this stuff, and the intervening predictions have only confirmed this. YOU ARE A GENIUS, FULL STOP.

Also, WI DISTRICT 2!!!!!! I got to vote to put the first lesbian and the first woman from Wisconsin in the Senate. (This is after voting for the first woman -- and the first black person, and the first black WOMAN -- from Illinois in the Senate. Lucky me! Though that didn't turn out so well in the end.)