All 100 percent of the precincts appear to be counted in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, which has become a proxy political battle over Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-public employee union legislation. And while a recount now appears certain, the very stunning result is that incumbent conservative Justice David Prosser — who should have been re-elected easily as of just a few weeks ago — now narrowly trails his liberal-backed challenger, Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg.
The local NBC affiliate in Milwaukee reports that the final precinct has reported: the town of Lake Mills gave Prosser a net pickup of only two votes: Prosser 366, Kloppenburg 364.
Adding those figures to the Associated Press’s current spreadsheet (which continues to be corrected and adjusted on a running basis), Kloppenburg leads by 204 votes, out of nearly 1.5 million cast.
As WisPolitics reported this afternoon, Team Prosser is gearing up for a recount:
“We are assembling our legal team and continuing to watch our vote totals,” [Prosser campaign director] Nemoir said. “We are encouraged by the turnout and believe in a record-setting Supreme Court election there’s plenty of reason to believe there’s unrecognized opportunity to deliver a victory.
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.