Primary results: It's Barrett vs. Walker, round 2. (Interesting Observations)

Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett won Tuesday's Democratic gubernatorial primary by a wide margin setting up a rematch of the 2010 Wisconsin governor's race. Barrett will face Governor Scott Walker in a recall election June 5. Barrett held 57% of the vote over next closest competitor former Dane County Commissioner Kathleen Falk's 35%. WPR programming note: Tom Barrett joins Kathleen Dunn on the Ideas Network Wednesday at 9:30 am.

Madison firefigher and union leader Mahlon Mitchell won in the Democratic Lt. Gov. race to challenge incumbent Republican Rebecca Kleefisch. State senate recall candidates Kristen Dexter, Lori Compas and Donna Seidel survived 'fake' Democratic challenges, and in the remaining state Senate race Democrat John Leham held a large lead over protest candidate Tamra Varebrook.

In addition, follow this link to the Wisconsin Primary results: http://www.wisconsinvote.org/election-results

A few interesting observations:

1. 900,000 people signed recall petitions, yet when the chips were down, only 550,000 of them actually turned out to vote.

2. Barrett handily beat Kathleen Falk (Commie-WI) in her own home (Dane) county, which is the home of the UW, Madistan, and the most liberal part of the state. Barrett received 61% of the vote to 30% for Falk, a humiliating defeat for Falk, a darling of the left and the candidate who had the total support of the Unions and ran on a promise to repeal Act 10.

3. A faux-Republican ran against Gov. Walker, and was smashed 97% to 3%. Everyone knew he was a sham candidate and posed no threat to Walker, yet 584,929 Wisconsin voters turned out to vote for Walker anyway.

Look at those numbers again:

- 550,000 Democrats voted in what they see as a vitally important election

- 585,000 Republicans voted in a primary that was meaningless.

4. In the 2010 election for Governor, Scott Walker pulled 1,128,941 votes vs. 1,004,303 for Tom Barrett, to win with a 52.25% to 46.48% victory.

We report, you decide...

I work in Madison, and I find the results extremely encouraging. My fear was that Walker could lose on turnout. Here in Madison, I see the cars wallpapered with the anti-Walker bumper stickers.

What I conclude is that the anti-Walker sentiment is the most intense, but only in a subset of potential voters. So, while the average intensity against Walker is stronger than the intensity pro-Walker. The median intensity is much different.

In short 15% of the anti-walker people have Incredible Hulk type anger. But 80% of the Walker supporters are annoyed enough to actually turn out and vote. Works for me.

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