Kloppenburg was robbed! Waukesha pulling votes out of thin air to ensure a Prosser/Walker/Koch victory! All right – probably not. What an election it was, though – huge voter turnouts, too-close-to-call election day, razor-thin margins of victory and the eventual 14,000 “oops” in Waukesha. So as it stands today, did we learn anything about Wisconsin from this election?

First of all, I just want to say it is clear Wisconsin gives a damn, and to me that’s the most important facet of any working democracy. Yes, I am disappointed Kloppenburg is going to lose this election, but the ground gained between the primary and general elections should not be overlooked. In February, Prosser came out of the primary with a seemingly insurmountable advantage of 55 to 28 percent over the lesser-known Kloppenburg. The eventual outcome being well within a single percentage point shows a clear repudiation of the actions of the Walker administration over the past few months.

We remain a divided state. That’s fine, but I will say that comments Gov. Scott Walker made following the election prove to me the disconnect between how his administration approaches that divide and how Wisconsin has operated historically. We heard for weeks from Walker that the protesters were being “bussed in from out of state” and that it was a small but dedicated minority determined to undermine the will of the people. Facing the realities of a statewide election where the outcome was clearly changed drastically by the fallout from recent events, Walker decided to alter slightly his “will of the people” stance. 

Following the election, he said, “You have two very different worlds in this state. You’ve got a world driven by Madison, and a world driven by everybody else. …” That’s an offensive oversimplification, in my opinion a blatant attempt to discredit the voting decisions of every person in this state. Take a look at the results for yourself – there’s a lot of blue all over the west side of the state, a lot of red in the east. There’s also some blue peeking out from our northern border counties of Douglas, Bayfield and Ashland – clearly a Madison-liberal conspiracy. 

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again – my favorite stories from politicians who have spent a lot of time around our Capitol is the give and take, the communication and, at the end of the day, the joint responsibility politicians on both sides of the aisle in this state historically accepted. Sure, this will just leave me open to the inevitable “I’m too na?ve” comment, but I think it’s important to distinguish between Walker’s rhetoric of division and the underlying goal of Wisconsin: forward. 

I like to think it’s forward for everyone, even those left-wing liberal nuts, even the GOP’s geographic base in the Milwaukee suburbs. “Crazy Madison against everyone” is disingenuous at best and unfortunately just another example of a governor disconnected from the realities of the relationships between the people who elected him.

To finish this election wrap-up, just a quick word on the missing 14,000 from Waukesha. First, Kathy Nickolaus needs to be removed from her position as Waukesha County Clerk. I genuinely doubt anything illegal transpired, but a failure to report 14,000 votes is a little more than a simple mistake. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin sent a letter to U.S Attorney General Eric Holder asking for a federal investigation into the handling of votes in Waukesha, so it’s not just conspiracy theorists who think these votes are a little fishy. 

Not much else to say on this issue pending further investigations, except I think higher requirements should be implemented for the level of technology being used at every polling outlet. Also, on no level does this appear to me an argument for requiring a photo ID at polling places; this was a counting and reporting issue, not a Cook County, Major Daley affair.

Judge Prosser will likely maintain his seat on our Supreme Court, a court whose dysfunctional dynamics will now remain unaltered. I hope he does a good job, and I hope he stops calling co-workers “total bitches.” Looking forward, I hope the Democratic base can build on this defeat, seeing the silver lining of almost doing the unheard-of – unseating an incumbent Supreme Court judge. This was a loss for Kloppenburg, but hopefully it can be a win for Wisconsin.

John Waters ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism.