On Wednesday, Milwaukee County began recounting over 200 thousand votes cast in the Supreme Court race at the Milwaukee County Sports Complex in Franklin. The process started off shaky with Kloppenburg observers being allowed to enter the corral with the counters, while Prosser observers were not. That problem, as well as several others was corrected as they were discovered. Prosser’s campaign says it is not worried about small instances like these, and expects when the recount is over, Prosser will still be the victor.

In the wake of Thursday’s stunning news that Waukesha County failed to report over 14,000 votes in the city of Brookfield, a cacophony of allegations quickly swirled around the unexpected turn of events.

As soon as the news was confirmed from Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus at a Thursday evening press conference, the topsy-turvy race between Justice David Prosser and Asst. Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg for a ten-year term on the Wisconsin Supreme Court took another leap into the bounds of the unpredictable and incredible and in turn, has caused many to leap full-on into the conspiratorial realm.

Now, no one is defending Ms. Nickolaus’ competence or lack thereof, and it certainly does not help her credibility that she has been the subject of audits and complaints regarding her antiquated and unreliable record keeping. There is no question that an investigation needs to take place to explain and prevent this from happening again on such a large scale.

But the head-first dive into conspiracy reveals a hypocrisy to match the already unbelievable events in Waukesha. A sampling of statements in the last 24 hours:

• “The mysterious, and arguably timely, discovery of ballots on a personal computer appears to be the latest example of Governor Walker and his friends unfairly using the levers of government to silence Wisconsin voters…this is yet another reminder of the lengths this administration will travel to side with partisan politicians and corporate donors rather than Wisconsinites.”- SEIU Press Release 4/8/11
• “But in order to steal the election, they NEED to be able to keep a recount from occurring, because a recount would expose their attempted fraud to the light of day…They will do EVERYTHING they can to make sure NO ONE checks the paper trail. Because the paper trail will be the nail in their coffin.We must not let them succeed in this attempted fraud.” - Daily Kos “Why Prosser Needed EXACTLY 7500+ votes…” 4/7/11
• “It stretches the bounds of credibility to think that over 14,300 votes were somehow “overlooked” until two days after the election.”- Sen. Mark Miller (D-Madison) 4/7/11
• “Tuesday, the people of Wisconsin took away David Prosser’s seat on the Supreme Court. And yesterday, the Waukesha County Clerk, Kathy Nickolaus, served as Prosser’s sleazy accomplice trying to steal it back.”- One Wisconsin Now 4/8/11
• “Wisconsin is facing the largest potential election fraud case perpetrated in the history of this state and law enforcement must act immediately.”- Scot Ross, Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now 4/8/11

Reflected in these statements is frustration and denial at the thought that despite months of anger and marching in the streets, despite the efforts of millions of dollars, and despite the fairly effective attempt to make a non-partisan judicial race a referendum on Governor Scott Walker, a narrow majority of Wisconsinites still turned out and voted in favor of Justice Prosser.

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As the Wisconsin Supreme Court race looks to be decided by just a matter of a few hundred votes, questions naturally arise about potential improprieties that may have been conducted in an effort to “get out the vote.” One such instance occurred in Madison where two taxi cab companies decided to offer free rides as part of a “Democracy in Motion” effort to “support our community by helping people get to the polls.”

The cab companies Union Cab Coop and Badger Cab offered free rides to the polls by request in the Dane County communities of:

• Middleton (Kloppenburg: 68%)
• Monona (Kloppenburg: 75%)
• Shorewood (Kloppenburg: 84%)
• City of Madison (Kloppenburg: 82%)
• Blooming Grove (Kloppenburg: 74%)
• Burke (Kloppenburg: 60%)
• Maple Bluff (Kloppenburg: 59%)
• Fitchberg (Kloppenburg: 68%)

Seems rather benign on the surface, but when one considers the areas in which these cabs served, they voted for the JoAnne Kloppenburg to the tune of 79%.

According to Union Cab Coop, they brought 102 people to the polls yesterday. When Media Trackers contacted Badger Cab they had not compiled the exact numbers but estimates were that they brought “around 50 people” to the polls.

Despite this “non-partisan” facade, Union Cab Coop has posted on their website a series of statements that reveal that there may have been more than meets the eye for these friendly free rides.

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Big labor attempted to turn yesterday’s election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court into a referendum on Governor Scott Walker’s budget policies, but, like much else in Wisconsin politics these days, the results remain unclear. This state court fight drew national attention because of its potential implications for the state’s new law, supported by Walker and Republicans in the legislature, barring collective bargaining for government employees.

Charles H. Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison told the New York Times Monday “This has really become a proxy battle for the governor’s positions and much less a fight about the court itself.”

Prosser, seen as a conservative, is expected to uphold Governor Walker’s union bill, while the liberal Kloppenburg has been heavily backed by the unions because she is expected to overturn it. The current court is split four to three in favor of conservatives, which makes this seat the deciding vote if the union case were to reach the state Supreme Court.

The morning after the polls closed there is no clear winner. Kloppenburg leads by a mere 224 votes 739,574 to Prosser’s 739,350 with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Turnout was high, but it is significant to note that, for all that it invested in this contest,  big labor was unable to secure a decisive win. It wasn’t for lack of trying.

Unions attempted a show of force across the country on April 4, staging hundreds of “We are 1” rallies. Their goal was to show solidarity but the outcome was lackluster at best. Redstate.com reported that despite the unions spending tens of thousands of dollars many of the rallies had only a fraction of the expected turnout.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka boldly predicted that the union’s demonstrations across the country would translate into electoral victory – starting yesterday in Wisconsin and catapulting Democrats to large wins in November 2012. On Tuesday he told a closed door Democratic House caucus meeting, “I firmly believe that if Democrats are to take back the House in 2012, it will be because they succeed in riding this wave, keeping that spark alive and closing the enthusiasm gap.” However, the unclear result from the Wisconsin Supreme Court election makes Trumka’s bluster ring hollow.

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Victim of sex abuse Troy Merryfield fired back at JoAnne Kloppenburg and the Greater Wisconsin Committee by appearing in a new ad paid for by Citizens for a Stronger America. In the ad, Merryfield condemns the use of his pain for political gain. Earlier this week Merryfield sent a letter to the Greater Wisconsin Committee and JoAnne Kloppenburg asking them to pull the ad.

For over a week now, the Greater Wisconsin Committee has been running an ad that attacks Justice David Prosser for a 30 year old case involving sex abuse committed by a priest. Prosser was Outagamie County District Attorney at the time.

In a debate on March 28, Prosser asked Kloppenburg to condemn the ad after Troy Merryfield wrote a letter asking the ad to be pulled. Kloppenburg refused.

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On Monday March 21, Supreme Court Justice David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg met at a debate at the Marquette University Law School. The two candidates took questions from former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske, Patrick Marley of the the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, J.R. Ross of Wispolitics.com, and Mike Gousha of WISN. The debate covered a broad range of topics from the recent rancor that seems to divide the court, the Impartial Justice Act, former cases, the Gableman case, and the current issues revolving around the Budget Repair Bill debate.

Below are a few important segments from the debate that prove quite revealing about Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg’s adequacy for the high court.

In this segment, Justice David Prosser notes that on JoAnne Kloppenburg’s campaign Facebook page, she has allowed rhetoric that links her election to overturning the Budget Repair Bill. In addition, Justice Prosser notes that there have been personal attacks made against him on the page as well as Governor Walker. The site has also been a rallying point for information regarding recall petitions and anti-Walker protests. Kloppenburg does not disavow these posts on her page but goes on to say that there is “nothing untrue” about these posts. Media Trackers first brought Kloppenburg’s Facebook page to light in a March 7 article that details many of these posts.

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