I’d wondered whether the latest liberal policy setback would damper enthusiam among Democratic voters in Wisconsin. This is a clutch week for them. Next Tuesday, ballots are in for the first round of recall elections; if Democrats win three of them, and defend all of their incumbents, they take over the state senate and block the rest of Gov. Scott Walker’s agenda. So as she entered the come-to-Satan budget session yesterday, I asked Rep. Tammy Baldwin whether the liberal base would be depressed.
“It’s just the opposite,” she told me. “I think people realize that the problems they have with Washington are the same problems they have with Madison.”
Greg Sargent reports that this may be more than spin:
[Wisconsin Democratic Chairman] Tate insisted that party polling shows that Dems are leading in the races to recall GOP senators Randy Hopper, Luther Olsen, and Dan Kapanke, and that they are in dead heats in the remaining races.
“I don’t know that I would say that we are going to sweep all six races, but our polling tells that we have leads in three of these races an we are dead tied in three,” Tate said. “Independents are moving towards the Democratic candidates in strong numbers.” Every race, he said, is “emminently winnable.”
