Amazing. If I was a Democrat, I'd be celebrating the victory of a Democrat opposed to the Taxpayer Protection Amendment over a Republican co-sponsor of the bill in a Republican-leaning city. Instead, some Democrats seem intent on denying this victory to try to suddenly claim Waukesha, the city Ed Garvey recently joked he tried to avoid driving through, is not Republican-leaning.
Look, past election numbers don't lie. In the last Presidential election, Republican straight-ticket voters in the City of Waukesha made up 64% of the straight-ticket ballots cast. Republican US Senate candidate Tim Michels won the City of Waukesha in 2004 54% to 45%.
Which makes Nischke's loss even more devastating to Republicans. Here was a candidate who was a co-sponsor of the Taxpayer Protection Amendment in a Republican-leaning city with a 3:1 spending advantage, and she still lost. The Taxpayer Protection Amendment has just suffered a legitimate serious blow to it's chances of ever passing the legislature.
But if Democrats was to still claim that the City of Waukesha is a secret Democrat stronghold and that this really wasn't a test of the Taxpayer Protection Amendment, I'm willing to help sell that spin. I'll do my best, right after I finish downing a quart of straight ethanol.
By the way, I called New Berlin and Brookfield correctly, so cut me some slack on expecting a 3:1 spending advantage in a Republican-leaning city when she already represented most of the city in the state legislature to translate into a victory. I did suggest last week that there was a chance of an upset. I should have trusted my instincts. What an ugly, ugly loss. "Pulling a Nischke" is going to be a new Wisconsin political metaphor.
