Grothman Wiping Out Panzer in the 20th Senate

[theshadow]

70%+ of the vote. The loons have taken over. It will be a miracle if Uhlig beats him in November.

[Big Al from WI]

1. Unfortunately,

Uhlig is running for Grothman's OLD ASSEMBLY SEAT. Grothman will be unopposed. Too bad we can't send Tom Hebl over there to run against him. (Or Mark Miller, if Hebl makes a huge comeback like I'm hoping for).

[theshadow]

2. Right Again, Big Al.

I've been getting that confused all summer. It will be Uhlig against Patty Strachota. He's an excellent candidate but this district is so locked-up by the GOP that it's going to very tough for him.

[Big Al from WI]

3. Hebl lost

Just for the record. Send him to West Allis! But seriously, both Miller and Hebl were great candidates. I felt that Hebl was the better candidate to beat the Republicans but if East Madison and Monona turns out the same way in the general election that they did tonight, we have nothing to worry about.

[LTR]

4. It's the Belling Brigade

Mark Belling has been on radio railing against Panzer for months for being too liberal. His wingnut followers bought this shit and turned out hard in the north suburbs.

Too bad the Dems didn't run anyone. Must have thought Panzer would be a slam-dunk in the primaries, and were content. Bad, bad move.

[goddess40]

5. Repubs eat their own

Panzer ticked off John Gard. The Repubs kill any of their own that dare to think for themselves. It's too bad we couldn't get rid of Gard. He is the real snake in the garden. He lives in Sun Prairie and sends his kids to school there but represents people in the north of the state. They vote for him because they think he brings prestige to them as he is the state Senate leader. Fools.

[TheMightyFavog]

7. Yeah, too bad Berman beat out Peterlin in the primary.

Don't get me wrong Bruce Berman's a nice guy, but it's like pitting a docile old golden retriver against a frickin trained Doberman combat dog!

At least with Peterlin, we would have had a fighting chance.

[sybylla]

6. "Running someone" is getting harder to do.

The districts in this state have been quite solidly gerrymandered to the point that most incumbents are pretty safe.

Who wants to take on a right-wing smear machine in a district that almost always votes repug? Makes it difficult to recruit Dems to run and there are certainly fewer and fewer volunteers. You can't force someone to run and merely putting a name on a ballot (someone who is just there to make sure the opposition must spend their campaign money) sometimes plays as badly as having no name on the ballot.

Might be different if the state party supported all Dems, but their uncoordinated campaign, as I like to call it, focuses money and resources only on "winnable" seats. It's one of the biggest reasons we have no one on the ballot in my assembly district too. I'm willing to bet that during the last election cycle, Panzer's district was ignored by the state party and no one wants to go up against a well provisioned slander machine alone.