Not surprisingly, Tom Barrett easily beat Kathleen Falk in the Democratic gubernatorial recall primary on Tuesday in South Milwaukee. The margin among local voters, however, is noteworthy.
Barrett more than doubled up Falk, 67.4% to 28%, or 1,660 to 689 votes, in South Milwaukee. Kathleen Vinehout got 47 votes, and Douglas La Follette got 46. That margin is well ahead of the statewide spread.
Other results and observations:
- Gov. Scott Walker beat “fake” Republican candidate Arthur Kohl-Riggs, 97.8% to 2%, in South Milwaukee.
- Mahlon Mitchell easily won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor with 43.7% of the local vote to 27.7% for Isaac Weix and 26% for Ira Robbins. The fact that a “fake” Democrat (Weix) got such a high percentage of the vote locally is concerning to me — probably as concerning as the fact that these “fake” candidates were allowed to run, on both sides, in the first place.
- Turnout was a surprisingly high 41.4%, as 4,849 of the city’s 11,699 registered voters cast a ballot on Tuesday.
One other observation, for what it’s worth — and reading tea leaves in elections like this can be tricky business: More Democratic votes (2,461) were cast for governor locally than Republican votes (2,364). How that translates (if it translates at all) to the June 5 general election remains to be seen.
Check out the complete results on the city’s website. What are your observations? Post them below!
South Milwaukee Blog 
I truely enjoyed Falk’s concession speech….just thanking the UNIONS only, and not the people who voted for her…
The silent majority will prevail on June 5th !!!!
Interesting observation EriK. I would expect more turnout from Democrats than Republicans. Afterall, It was supposed to be a Democratic primary. What I find interesting is Walker ended up getting more votes than Falk and Barrett combined in the state. Another interesting thought- If a million people signed the recall petition why did they not show up to vote in the primary? How many Republicans do you think crossed over to vote for Falk or Barrett? Only time will tell who will win on June 5th.
While there were no legitimate Republican races on the primary ballot, I’d argue that Republican voters were energized by the fact that this was the first chance they had to re-endorse Walker at the polls since Act 10. That led, in part, to the higher Republican voter totals than many expected .. and made this primary unlike any other. There was an element of “making a statement” going on, and make a statement they did.
I am a Walker supporter and voted for Falk. There are a lot of us that did that.
Exactly my point about reading tea leaves from primaries … That said, I’ll admit that Walker’s high vote total in a primary where Republicans had little reason to turn out does not bode well for Barrett. We’ll see. Still, no matter what happens, I will continue to believe that this is basically a 50-50 state. About half of the people support Walker, about half don’t. There are very few in the middle. I base this on what I see everyday. And it will be that way on June 4, 5, 6 and beyond.
It only takes one more vote than your opponent to win.
Indeed. But my hope is if either side wins by one vote, or 10, or 100, or 1,000 or even 10,000, it is not viewed as a mandate — a reason to push, without compromise, an ideological agenda that divides the state. There are common sense solutions to the problems we face that need not be liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. No matter who the governor is, finding that consensus should be job one.
Sorry, but the Dem’s do not compromise. Again, the silent majority likes what is happening. The whiners are the teachers…..
If the “silent majority” is silent, I find it hard to surmise what their feelings or stance consist of. Further, who makes up the silent majority? The term gets thrown around quite a bit, as if they are some secret group of elders whose opinions we should cherish despite their refusal to publicly take a stance and vote. I have yet to see a press release or endorsement of any candidate from the “silent majority”, nor do I understand how/why they have appointed so many people who are very clearly not members of the “silent majority” to be their spokespersons on the issues of today.