Kloppenburg Concedes...Will Not Challenge Recount

Source: The Hudson Patch

Assistant State Attorney General Joanne Kloppenburg conceded election Tuesday to incumbent David Prosser Jr., saying the widespread anomalies found during a historic statewide recount were not enough to win a court challenge to change the outcome

Kloppenburg said in her press conference that she was not pressured by unions to seek a recount or a court challenge of the recount. "I never heard from them," she said. She further joked that she "did not have doughnuts with the union thugs this morning."


She said she was filing a letter with the state Government Accountability Board detailing the numerous election anomalies and problems her campaign found during the statewide recount.She further urged the GAB to accept her previous request that it hire an independent investigator to scrutinize the processes of Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus.






Read more: http://hudson-wi.patch.com/articles/kloppenburg-concedes-wisconsin-supreme-court-election-to-prosser-will-not-challenge-recount

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And so it ends, with a whimper, not a bang. Kloppenburg did well, considering the odds. Join me in sending support to the Wisconsin Recall movement, and hope that their weasel Governor is unable to do too much damage before his recall time comes due.

It's such a shame.

and some lack of fire and passion in all too many Dems. Still, if there's a state with fighting Dems, it's Wisconsin!

It may be true in some contexts, on average. But right now I can think of two big instances of recounts reversing outcomes -- Franken over Coleman, and earlier Gregoire over Rossi for governor in Washington. How have people convinced themselves that Republicans have more "fight and tenacity" when it comes to recounts? I don't get it.

And the reason is that Dems are Charlie Brown, the Republicans are Lucy, and the football is bi-partisan compromise.

Dems are eternally hopefull that they can put the ball into play. Republicans are delighted to snatch the ball away, time after time, leaving Dems laying on their back in the dust.

It's a well worn image, but it's been well-worn because its true.

Now Wisconsin is not a passive state. Some Dems there have real fire. Kloppenburg either wasn't in that group, or had just read the writing on the wall, knew there wasn't enough fact to make a call in her favor, and saved the hassle and the expense. I'm not saying she did wrong, but it's sad, nonetheless...

all dems don't? You contradicted your own generalization.

:shrug:

Why are you making shit up?

"Dems are Charlie Brown..."
"Dems are eternally hopeful..."

You did not say,

"Some Dems are Charlie Brown..."
"Some Dems are eternally hopeful..."

If I said "Republicans are dirtbags" are you to infer that I mean only some republicans or all of them?

So, no, I am not making shit up.

Because Charlie Brown is a comic strip character. Thank God I didn't have to explain that as well.

People write with different styles (well, not all people), but it's fairly common to write message board posts (again, not all message board posts) with less formality than you (not "You" you, but the rhetorical you, which means people in general, and again, not all people, just some people) would find when reading a newspaper article (not all articles), or a term paper (again. not all, just some, probably most).

Jeez...people sure are picky these days (not all peop..ah hell with it!)

I would assume that you meant "some" - not "all." It's a metaphor, a stylistic rhetorical device. You are not being literal. I don't take what you are saying literally.

All the more so true when one starts using comic strip characters and devices in their metaphors, and prefaces the entire post with the subject "not when it comes to recounts, just in GENERAL"

There are lots of reasons to hesitate before taking up unwinnable legal cases; hassle and expense certainly are two of them.

I've seen lots of people talk as if appealing the recount result was the obvious way to Get To The Bottom Of what happened in Waukesha County and the rest of the state -- but frankly I haven't seen any who seem to have thought about how that would actually work. That leads me to believe that Kloppenburg was correct and they were wrong. Wile E. Coyote shows plenty of "fire," but it doesn't really help him.

Kloppenburg insisted on the recount in the face of lots of Republican doom-mongering about how unfathomably expensive it would be to count ballots. She has demonstrated more political courage than the vast majority of her Keyboard Kommando critics ever will. (I'm not calling you that, especially since you're at least open to the possibility that she did the right thing.) And her concession statement includes a solid discussion of what the recount revealed about election problems in Wisconsin, which demonstrates her to be more thoughtful than the vast majority of her critics as well. Not to mention that she ran a heck of a campaign.

I think she has a lot to be proud of, and her supporters do too. It would be a shame if that were obscured by some vague idea that she was foolishly striving for bipartisan compromise.

I don't think she's some kind of Democratic warrior judge, but I'm pretty well convinced (not just "at least open to") the fact that she knew where a court challenge would go, and made the painfull decision to step out. That had to hurt.

I didn't want to overinterpret "I'm not saying she did wrong."

happened if not for the horrid Republican agenda games in Madison. It was a virual tie. She had a short window of time, little money, was unknown, and was up against an entrenched incumbent and damn near beat him. Can't bemoan this. She is handling it just right. Now on to the recalls.

The Big Picture is rosy in this case.

gasoline rather than let my state down like this. So much for hope.

don't give it up

No fight...No battle...No drawing it out.

We are pathetic.

...because they are allowed to continue to hide underneath their rock.

disprove that fraud occurred - it only re-counts (duh) the numbers and cross checks against the other records (poll books, poll tapes etc.)n Fraud investigations have to happen in a different venue and if there's evidence that warrants further investigation I hope to god she acts on it.

Apart from all that though - there has to be SOME accountability for the mess in Waukesha County. Let's assume for the moment it's NOT fraud - then it's dereliction of duty. If there isn't some minimum standard of competence in a job as vital as this - maybe there ought to be. I have yet to hear a logical explanation for what that woman was up to that night, why she didnt inform the GAB immediately, why were there so many torn bags there and not other places. Not only current election anomalies but YEARS of freaky goings on in Waukesha Co.

And apart from all THAT... the bottom line is we have a truly whacked "faith based system" for vote counting and verifying.... what are we gonna do about it?

When is a national Dem leader going to make Rethug vote fraud a major issue?

... where they show them footage of the Kennedy assassination from different angles or something?

from the grassy knoll?

naaah....

:eyes:

aside...looks like a page out of the GOP Dirty Tricks playbook. And it still works!

Justice Department to do an investigation of the way the election count and recount was conducted.

Kloppenburg may not want to fight this result, but any private citizen of Wisconsin can file a suit to have the result challenged in court.
There were enough anomalies to make this election fraudulent.
This position is for a 10 year term, so it is vital that the election be scrutinized.

After years of investigation and court cases in Ohio it's now widely acknowledged that the 2004 election"could have been" stolen - inf fact the Ohio sec of state said exactly that. (BTW, did any prosecutions ever come out of that ? Not a rhetorical question, I just dont remember- there is a h uge news blackout on this stuff and you really do have to search for it.)

So it's a two pronged thing, yes the investigations need to happen - and then the other part of it is what do we do with that information. How do we light a fire to demand change and verifiability of our system. Right now we have a huge systemic problem here in that our voting system is by and large unverifiable - "faith based" as Brad blog so aptly put it.

I don't live in Wisconsin or I would file a suit.
There is so much wrong with this election the way it was handled, the way it was counted, and the way it was recounted that is obvious that this was not a "clean" election outcome.

Yet, the law requires that it be a CITIZEN OF WISCONSIN to stand up and demand justice.
People in other states would have their case thrown out of court.
There only has to be ONE CITIZEN stand up to fight back.
That's all it takes.
That's it.
It's easy.

But, they have to be a resident from Wisconsin.

So, where is Russ Feingold? This is his day. Carpe diem, Russ!!
God dammit, I can't make it any clearer than that.