This Defeat Had a Thousand Fathers

The very recent Spring elections here in Wisconsin was, once again,

an unmitigated disaster for conservatives, particularly in the race for

the seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court held by the retiring Justice

Rebecca Bradley, one of three remaining conservative justices who 

will be replaced by newly-elected liberal judge Christine Taylor, who

will be sworn in on August 1. The post mortem reveals many steps

which should have been taken to clinch the victory, and many 

missteps which should not have been taken so as to avoid defeat.

Let's swallow hard and review:

Judge Maria Lazar, the opposing candidate, has a fine background as 

a circuit judge in Waukesha County and as a judge on the Wisconsin

Court of Appeals. A conservative jurist, she ran in the recent election

stating that she would follow the state constitution and interpret the 

law thus, but said little else about her judicial philosophy. Meanwhile,

Judge Taylor opened up as to what her goals on the bench would be,

harkening back to her days as a state legislature where she supported

bills to strengthen abortion rights, gun control and unions (you just 

KNOW she would vote to strike down Act 10 as a justice on the state's

high court!). Conservative voters wanted Judge Lazar to be a bit more 

forthcoming on what they could expect from her rather than hear the 

kind of campaign rhetoric one would hear from a high school class 

council candidate. 

Judge Taylor received a lot of monetary donations from wealthy lefty

interests outside of Wisconsin, which enabled her campaign to buy 

more media space in print, on the airwaves, and online. Team Lazar 

was outraised and therefore outspent by Team Taylor, and by a gigantic

margin. Wealthy conservatives were, on the whole, rather hesitant to

give money to the Lazar effort, and based their reluctance on Judge 

Lazar to elucidate more on her ideas concerning her views as related

to her judicial temperament. Who wants to buy a pig in a poke?

However, in fairness to Judge Lazar, she wasn't her own worst enemy;

not at all. Her team made weak messaging, did lackadaisical fund-

raising, and a Wisconsin Republican Party infrastructure which is both

behind the times and the 8-ball, not keeping pace with the Democrats

in the shifting how-tos and wherefores of campaigning. Adding to this,

few of the state bigwigs argued and fueded amongst themselves, 

fighting each other rather than fighting the Democrat-backed enemy; 

this a long-standing problem for the state GOP which has cost the 

party past elections, the infamous circular firing squad. Defeat 

usually is an orphan, but this defeat had a thousand fathers. 

Also, there is a thing called "The billionaire loophole" in which wealthy

donors could, rather than give limited amounts of money to candidates,

give much greater sums of money in donations to the parties of the 

donations for which there are no limits imposed by campaign laws.

Do you know who gave us this loophole? The Republicans! In 2015

the GOP-controlled legislature and then-Gov. Scott Walker passed 

Act 117, doing away with aggregate contribution limits, doubling  

campaign candidate limits, and giving the OK to unlimited transfers

from parties to candidates. A funnel-down way of filling campaign

coffers. Did they not think that the Democrats might, just MIGHT, 

avail themselves of this then-new rule? 

Additionally, the state GOP big shots failed to craft a message to make  

it look worthwhile for conservative voters around the state to come out 

to vote for the GOP candidates in the races. The electorate had many

who didn't vote, not feeling any motivation to vote, going back to the 

weak messaging by the party. There was little resonating with the 

voters and a low turnout was the consequence. Furthermore, the low 

turnout hurt Republicans and Republican-backed candidates in their 

elections, some of them losing races that they otherwise would have  

won. If one chooses not to vote, then one has already voted. 

The Wisconsin Republican Party is its own worst enemy. It should stop,

take stock of itself, and make note of all what it must do in order to get

back on the winning track and regain the ground it lost in recent 

elections. Otherwise, Wisconsin will become tax-and-red tape, 

crime-ridden hellholes like Illinois, New York, and California, 

for Democrats will have taken over Wisconsin like they have these 

other states and good luck with getting our state back. We conser- 

vatives and Republicans have to win back control of the state GOP,

win back the seats in government, especially the state's highest court,

and with alacrity.

 

We can do it, but time is a dwindling commodity, and the hourglass  

sands are running out.

MEM