Incumbent conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice has now declared victory, with the county canvasses showing him ahead by 7,316 votes –Â and a little over a week after his liberal-backed opponent, Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg, had declared victory herself.
As WisPolitics reports, Prosser campaign spokesman Brian Nemoir has released a statement, with a clear hope that Kloppenburg does not pursue a recount:
“Today, the will of the electorate is clear with the last canvas now completed and Justice David Prosser reelected to another 10 year term to the Supreme Court. Justice Prosser extends his appreciation and respect to Joanne Kloppenburg and her spirited campaign.
With certified results inâhand, Justice Prosser hopes that a shared respect for the judiciary allows the campaign to move to a positive conclusion.
Justice Prosser looks forward to thanking the voters of Wisconsin and is expected make a public address in the nearâfuture.”
The Kloppenburg campaign has already said it will “carefully weigh the options,” and decide what to do by the deadline this Wednesday.
Early on, Prosser was widely expected to easily win re-election, given the advantages of incumbency in terms of fundraising, name recognition, and the organizational backing of the state business establishment and Republican Party in the nominally non-partisan race. However, the widespread protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-public employee union legislation quickly turned this into a proxy political battle, and unions brought a late but very energetic effort on Kloppenburg’s behalf.
On Wednesday of last week, Kloppenburg declared victory on the basis of Associated Press figures showing 100% of precincts reported, with Kloppenburg enjoying the very narrow lead of 204 votes out of nearly 1.5 million. Then that Thursday, as counties were conducting the official canvass to check for errors in their election night spreadsheets that were reported to the media, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus (R) announced the discovery of un-tabulated votes in the city of Brookfield — giving Prosser a net gain of over 7,000 — saying that her own error had resulted in them not being properly imported and saved into the county’s database.
“I’m thankful that this error was caught early in the process and during the canvass,” Nickolaus said at the press conference last week.
Since then, Democrats have been crying foul about the race — and also raising doubts about past election results in the county, as well. For her part, Nickolaus has responded to the criticism and said she will not resign: “I will serve the remainder of my term. I understand why people are upset and I am taking this matter seriously. Again, I am sorry for my mistake.”
