This is why:
State Senate - District 21 - Special General
60 of 60 Precincts Reporting - 100%
Name Party Votes Vote %
Lehman, John Dem 36,255 51%
Wanggaard, Van (i) GOP 35,476 49%
What this means is the Wisconsin State Senate will now have a Democratic majority.
Scott Walker's reign of terror is over.
What people need to understand is that Wisconsin was faced with an impossible situation just 17 months ago. Walker had a radical agenda with excuses for implementation, wealthy backers, and control of the Legislature. We were defenseless.
The uprising that followed was amazing. The bravery and the integrity on our side was something to behold. It was the People and a handful of great Democrats that managed to tie those guys up in knots, to where they had to ram through their garbage legislation in the middle of the night.
Sure they've made a mess, but we fought back hard, resisting at every turn.
And then we recalled two Senators, falling just short in the Summer, but coming back now to claim our first victory.
Well, I should say that the recalls themselves were victories because we put their backs against the wall, and made them spend and spend and spend (and sweat a LOT), just to keep the Governor in place for now.
Do you get it? They lost the Senate, we've lost nothing.
But it does not end there. Governor Walker is under criminal investigation. He managed to stonewall up until this point so that he could get through the recall. That he did (by being "less than honest" about it), but his legal troubles will not be going away so fast. Ad buys will not dissuade prosecutors from closing in.
At some point the Republicans will be only too glad to cut him loose.
And there will be another election five months from today, when Democrats can re-take the Assembly as well, as all seats there are up in November.
The truth is that last night, the first victory was attained in a battle we are only just beginning to fight.
And the more basic truth is that when you fight the Good Fight, all out, balls to the wall, you really can't lose because you are now stronger, smarter, and that much more determined. Every day you fight you grow stronger while your opponent grows weaker because you are embracing Truth while he is running from it.
Just look at where we are now in June of 2012, and compare that to where we were in February of 2011.
It's a new dawn, and it's getting brighter all the time.
I'm not a Wisconsinite, I've never even visited there, but I feel like I am one because the fight you guys have been fighting (and winning) is my fight too. We're all in this together. What you feel I feel too, and that's something that applies to folks all over the Nation! We're with you all the way.
And I've never met anyone I've spoken to here from Wisconsin, but I love all you guys. I love your spirit, your commitment, how hard-core you are, how funny you are, and how decent you are.
This fight starts right back up again, in Wisconsin and all over the Nation!
SOLIDARITY!!!