Here’s a true blast from the past: Former Wisconsin state Sen. Randy Hopper, who was ousted in a major 2011 recall campaign, has announced that he’ll compete in the Feb. 21 special election primary to succeed his old colleague and fellow Republican, Alberta Darling. Democrats are hoping to score a pickup here on April 4 that will deprive Republicans of their new super majority in the upper chamber.
Hopper was elected in 2008 from a constituency around Fond du Lac, which is located to the northeast of Darling’s former Senate District 8 in the Milwaukee suburbs, and he attracted national attention in 2011 when he helped pass Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s infamous anti-labor legislation. Both Hopper and Darling were among the group of six Republican state senators who had to defend their seats from recall efforts that summer, and while Darling held on, things didn’t go so well for Hopper.
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The contest began poorly for the incumbent when his estranged wife both said she’d signed a recall petition against him and declared Hopper had filed for divorce several prior after she learned he was having an affair. The media also reported that Walker’s administration had hired the woman identified as Hopper’s girlfriend for a well-paying state job, a decision Hopper denied playing any role in.
Democrats weren’t able to recall enough Republicans that August to take back the state Senate after Darling and three others prevailed, but they at least got the satisfaction of watching as Democrat Jessica King, who lost to Hopper by 163 votes in 2008, beat him 51-49. (Fellow Democrat Jennifer Shilling that night also ousted Dan Kapanke; Democrats briefly took the majority the next year when voters recalled another Republican state senator, Van Wanggaard.)
Hopper was back in the news a few months later when he was arrested for drunk driving, charges he claimed were politically motivated. He prevailed in court, though, and the former state senator, who now lives in the Milwaukee suburbs, has largely kept a low profile in the ensuing decade until now.
Hopper joins a primary that includes Thiensville Village President Van Mobley and two state representatives: Janel Brandtjen, an election conspiracy theorist who was recently banned from attending the GOP caucus' private meetings, and Dan Knodl, who is closer to the party leadership. Environmental attorney Jodi Habush Sinykin, meanwhile, currently has the Democratic primary to herself.