Kloppenburg Concedes

And we have a winner of the 2011 Wisconsin State Supreme Court election...

Justice David Prosser.



From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg said Tuesday that she was conceding the Supreme Court race to Justice David Prosser, ending what had been a contentious campaign that culminated in a rare statewide recount.

Kloppenburg made the concession at a Madison news conference just over a week after the state's Government Accountability Board reported that final count numbers showed Prosser with 7,006 more votes.

She said she had run a campaign that was respectful, honest and fair.

Her decision to concede is expected to pave the way for Prosser to begin a new, 10-year term on Aug. 1.

If Kloppenburg had challenged the recount, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson would have had to name a reserve judge to hear Kloppenburg's court challenge. Court observers say it is likely that Abrahamson and the reserve judge would move as quickly as possible to consider the appeal.

Kloppenburg asked for the taxpayer-financed recount - the first statewide recount in two decades - after losing by 7,316 votes in the April 5 election. Waukesha County, a key stronghold for Prosser, finished its recount last.

Kloppenburg's team had said in advance of Tuesday's decision that they would analyze the election evidence and the law before making their decision.

Though the April 5 election was officially nonpartisan, the campaign had all the feel of a partisan race: conservatives tended to support Prosser, while liberals backed Kloppenburg.

Wisconsinites knew Prosser was the winner weeks and weeks ago. We knew that before hundreds and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars were pissed away.

Today, JoAnne Kloppenburg conceded, she gave in to reality and admitted that she lost the election.

However, she did it in the most graceless way imaginable, whining about the mountain of "anomalies and irregularities and more" that allegedly tainted the results.

I suppose the whining was necessary to justify her demand to put the state through the idiotic recount.

I'm surprised her announcement came as early in the day as it did. I expected her to remain true to form and speak at around 4:00 PM, waiting until the last minute to meet the deadline on challenging the recount results.

Did Kloppenburg think the late morning announcement would make her appear more reasonable and less politically-motivated than staging another late afternoon drama?

It didn't.

I thought it was interesting that during the Q & A of her news conference she answered a question that wasn't asked.

Kloppenburg stated that she wasn't a union puppet, that she made her own decisions and was not doing the bidding of the union thugs.

Maybe she's not their puppet. Maybe her commitment to their extreme Leftist agenda is deeply entrenched.

Whatever.

Bottom line: She was content with sticking it to Wisconsin taxpayers for her ridiculous statewide recount but was not willing to foot the bill to challenge those results.

She did concede.

The election is over but this Kloppenburg news conference will live on in Wisconsin political history.

Let it be a lesson to other candidates.

"Wisconsin voters have spoken and I am grateful for, and humbled by, their confidence and trust."

"I'm ecstatic. My supporters are ecstatic, and I'm looking forward to becoming a justice on August 1st."

"We ran a campaign that was focused on being positive and respectful and, and winning; and we did win, and we're confident that the margin will hold."

"You know, the numbers showed that we won and we are gratified to have that victory in hand."

--JoANNE KLOPPENBURG