What Happened in South Milwaukee? Big Turnout, Strong Republican Lean

So, how did South Milwaukeeans vote on Tuesday?

For starters, strongly Republican. Scott Walker and Ron Johnson did well here in their gubernatorial and senatorial races, respectively, and Jess Ripp and Mark Honadel also polled strongly in our city. Even dark horse Dan Sebring outperformed in South Milwaukee.

Local residents also turned out in big numbers on Tuesday. Turnout of registered voters was 60.8 percent, with more than 8,000 residents hitting the polls. That’s a very large number for a non-presidential election.

Those were a couple facts gleaned from formal election results posted to the city’s website late Tuesday night. See the report here. (And thanks to City Clerk Jim Shelenske for getting these up so quickly.)

Among the local results:

• Walker and Lt. Gov.-elect Rebecca Kleefisch tallied 4,156 votes, or 52.1 percent, to 3,759, or 47.1 percent, for Tom Barrett and Tom Nelson.
• Johnson got 4,206 votes, or 52.4 percent, to Russ Feingold’s 3,379, or 46.6 percent.
• Sebring did even better than Walker and Johnson in South Milwaukee, with 4,220 votes, or 54.7 percent, to Democrat Gwen Moore’s 3,361, or 43.5 percent. Moore easily won the overall 4th House District race.
• Ripp narrowly beat Larson in South Milwaukee, 3,860 votes (50.8 percent) to 3,707 (48.8 percent). Larson, however, rolled to victory in his 7th Senate District race.
• Honadel easily won locally, with 4,587 votes, or 59.2 percent, to 3,149, or 40.6 percent, for Tom Michalski, an Oak Creek alderman.

That’s a lot of numbers. But what does this all mean? What are your insights? Post your comment below.