Tomorrow is kinda a big deal – election day. I’ve been repeating a lot of themes over the last week, so I’ll put them all here to keep people from having to ask the same questions again and again.
First, all celebrating I do tomorrow and, really, up through Friday, is going to be because oen way or another, this is over. On Friday, I may be willing to celebrate victory or cope with defeat, but given past electoral history in Wisconsin, and the fact that absentee ballots, of which there are a lot, don’t have to be received until Friday, I’m going to go ahead and assume nothing is certain before then. I’d advise you to do the same.
Secondly, ignore all the polls and the doom, gloom and dismay people seem to be having in response to them. All of the ones with sound methodology are within the margin of error, all the ones without wind up that way when corrected. This election is going to come down to turn out, plain and simple. We wouldn’t be in this situation if the Democrats hadn’t stayed home in 2010, so hopefully they’ve learned their lesson. If GOTV is as organized in the rest of the state as it is in Madison, I’m pretty confident we’ll do well. The ground game is, for once, well run. We can thank the Obama campaign for that. Walker doesn’t have a ground game, as far as I can tell, just tons of money.
Thirdly, even for people who aren’t in Wisconsin, this election should be fascinating to you. You’d be hard pressed to find a better experiment for testing the actual efficacy of money in politics. The Republicans have dramatically more money than the Democrats in this fight; the Democrats have dramatically more volunteer and organizational support. If the Republicans win, everybody upset by the Citizens United ruling has a much better case for their position than I have, up to this point, felt they have. If the Democrats win, I’ll probably actually sit down and write that blog post about money in politics that’s been stewing in the back of my head for a while. (In other words, I’m waiting to make sure I’m right before telling other people to quit whining. Being wrong on the internet is for other people)
Finally, if you are an eligible voter in Wisconsin, I strongly urge you to go vote tomorrow, if you haven’t already, and to vote for Barrett. If you aren’t going to vote for Barrett, I strongly urge you to instead avoid the lines and stay home. Watch a movie or something. Of course everybody should have their say in government, but just now, there are certain says I’m not interested in hearing. I’m sure you understand.
Anaea Lay 