EDWARDS SURPRISE

New York Post ^ | 2/18/04 | DEBORAH ORIN

[kattracks]

February 18, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - Democratic front-runner John Kerry narrowly won last night's Wisconsin primary - but underdog John Edwards was right behind in a strong second-place showing that shook up the race. Edwards rode a late surge to the surprise finish that turned the contest into a John vs. John battle - which means the March 2 Super Tuesday votes in New York, California and eight other states loom as the deciding moment.

[goldstategop]

John Edwards is now the Clintons' stalking horse to stop the Kerry avalanche.

[samtheman]

Edwards benefited by the fact that Wisconsin holds an "open" primary in which independents and Republicans, as well as Democrats, can vote. He won among independents and Republicans, while Kerry won big among Democrats.

Wisconsin Republicans deciding to keep this race open?

I wonder if it's a good thing, that Edwards continues on.

On the plus side is that it forces alQerry to spend more money.

But the downside is that it toughens alQerry up by giving him more of a real contest.

A simple coronation would have had him going against Bush without having really tested himself in a national campaign. Now he's getting the test. Spending a bunch of money, which is good. But getting more of a test run, which is not so good.

Also, I hope Edwards actually makes it to the VP slot. So I hope the race between Edwards and alQerry doesn't get too acrimonious. I don't think Edwards will add anything to the alQerry ticket and it will take the spot away from the person I fear the most: Bill Richardson. I don't think Richardson would be that much of a net gain for alQerry either (since he'd drive away as many people as he added), but he would be bad for the longterm prospects of Republican recruitment of Latinos.

[Amelia]

John Edwards is now the Clintons' stalking horse to stop the Kerry avalanche.

Edwards benefited by the fact that Wisconsin holds an "open" primary in which independents and Republicans, as well as Democrats, can vote. He won among independents and Republicans, while Kerry won big among Democrats.

Sounds as if it's "our type" trying to use Edwards to stop Kerry, not the Clintons...

I get to vote in the open primary in Georgia March 2...which of them do you think I should vote for?

[longtermmemmory]

This is the spin that Kerry is using to minimize Edwards. Seriously how may republicans can make that much of a difference? Not enough to push kerry to 6% distance.

[Amelia]

Seriously how may republicans can make that much of a difference? Not enough to push kerry to 6% distance.

I'm not sure...not sure what the demographics are in Wisconsin. If the majority of Wisconsin voters normally vote GOP, and some of the Dems like Edwards as well, I think it's possible...especially if there were some good local races to get a fairly good turnout.

[codercpc]

I read this morning, that he won big in Milwaukee, and they had quite a few items on their ballot. Mayor primary, County Exec., and I think some referandums.

Where I live, there was nothing but the Pres. primarys. I don't know if that all helps explain it or not?

[alwaysconservative]

From this board, I'd say the unreported story is how many Republicans voted Dean or Kerry, not Edwards. That doesn't mean that they can be counted on in the general in the Kerry column. In fact, I've yet to hear of a Republican voting for Edwards, despite this article. We WANT Kerry as the nominee; it is much easier to go up against a dull schmuck than someone who actually knows how to talk to people and can think on his feet.

[mewzilla]

Doesn't matter, though. The Toons have their hooks into Kerry, too.

[Amelia]

We WANT Kerry as the nominee; it is much easier to go up against a dull schmuck than someone who actually knows how to talk to people and can think on his feet.

I agree, but from reading the posts, there are those who either don't agree with you, or aren't thinking that far ahead...they want to ruin Kerry NOW.

[Monitor]

I've yet to hear of a Republican voting for Edwards, despite this article.

I'm a Wisconsin Republican, and I voted for Dean. So did my Republican business partner and his wife.

I guess we didn't get the "Vote Edwards" memo.

[rintense]

"A win is a win. We underwent a lot of Republican attacks last week. We showed we can fight back."

Are you kidding me???? You got the golden glove treatment from the press, you horse-faced moron! If you think last week was hard, you'd better grow some thicker, botox-enhanced skin because this summer is going to be ugly.

[mware]

I fell asleep watching TV last night and somehow Howies speech got into a dream. Talk about nightmares.

[alwaysconservative]

LOL, okay, who else didn't get the memo? Your posts are the reason I think the media is either mis-reading or mis-reporting this (what a shocker, huh?). There were 11% Republicans who voted, but I'd bet that most of those votes went to Dean, Kerry, or even Sharpton, if this board is any indication, NOT Edwards.

[steveegg]

First things first, I'm not proud to say it, but Wisconsin has historically been among the friendliest of DemonRAT territories (Kerry's ex-running mate, Dukakis, did carry Wisconsin in '88, but that was before I could vote). With that out of the way, I'll see if I can make some sense out of things.

There were 3 "big" local elections in Wisconsin yesterday, Milwaukee mayor (non-partisan), Milwaukee County Executive (also non-partisan), and a referendum on expanded gambling in Dane County (Madison - that's a story that really should get its own thread, but I'll touch on it when I get there). First, I'll take the mayor's race. There were 9 candidates, but only 3 that really mattered; Tom Barrett (a RAT ex-Congresscritter who thought he would be governor and thus redistricted himself out of his seat), Marvin Pratt (a liberal Common Coucil president/acting mayor - the latter is because John Norquist skipped town a few months early - who saw 3 of his 16 fellow aldercritters convicted on various federal corruption charges and is rumored to be a target of a federal probe), and David Clarke (a conservative sheriff who was appointed to the job early in 2002 and had won re-election as an unregistered Democrat - that's a long story on how he never joined their party but managed to hijack it anyway - in a partisan election later that year). Everyone assumed the race was between Barrett and Clarke, and the two campaigns went after each other. Meanwhile, Pratt took a page from Russ Feingold's 1992 Senate campaign, presented himself as a nice guy, and finished first with 38%, while Barrett also moved on with 32.6% (giving the liberals a commanding majority), Clarke disappointed with 17.1%, and the rest of the field managed 12.3% between them.

Contrast that with the 3-man Milwaukee County Executive race. Scott Walker, who was a Republican state legislator before sweeping into the seat to replace the disgraced and deposed Tom Ament, took 58.7% of the vote in the county, swept all but one of the suburbs, and at last check was leading in the city of Milwaukee while running on much the same platform as Clarke. His main challenger, David Riemer, a "card-carrying Democrat" (quote from him from this morning's paper; make a note of it because this is the first and will be the last time his party affiliation is mentioned, while Walker's is constantly mentioned by that same paper), trying to run away from a record of massive tax and fee hikes while he served as Milwaukee's budget director, only managed 36.2% of the vote and actually lost Milwaukee.

Finally, we have the casino referrendum. Unlike the rest of the state, when Jim (Craps) Doyle signed perpetual gambling expansion contracts with the Indians, he gave the voters of Dane County (not-so-coincidentally where he's from, and where the capital is) a voice on whether they wanted the Indian bingo hall there to expand into casino games. Despite being massively outspent by the tribe in question (at one point, the money was 17,000-1 in favor of the tribe), it went down in flames by a 64.5-35.5 margin.

The 355,000 or so that voted in these 2 (I know, I said 3 above, but just about everyone that voted in the mayor's race also voted in the county exec's race) accounted for nearly 36% of those that voted in the Presidential primaries (the Libertarians also had a contested primary that drew a total of 3,000 voters). Two more things to note; first, Wisconsin has a "semi-open" primary (anyone can vote in any one, and only one, party's primary - indeed, only the voter and the machine know whose primary one voted in because there is no such thing as party registration or separate pieces of paper for each primary), and since the only partisan primary was the Presidential, there were a lot of crossover votes. Second, while President Bush was completely unopposed in the Republican primary, his 158,000+ votes (825,000 or so voted in the RAT primary) were more than Howard Dean got.

[steveegg]

I didn't get the "Vote Edwards" memo, not that I would have obeyed it. At this point, a vote for Edwards is a vote for Hillary to broker her way to the head of the ticket this year

[steveegg]

It must be a French horse then :-)

We tried to keep the Dean campaign afloat, but when W outpolls him (158,673 to take 99.2% of the Republican primary vote to 150,682 for Dr. Doom) when a lot of us infiltrated the Dark Side precisely becuase there was only "uncommitted" running against W, it's over.

[proud American in Canada]

"You got the golden glove treatment from the press"


so very true. I spoke to my father last night--he's 69 and is not connected to the Internet. He reads the paper but is an "average American" in the sense that he's not really tuned into politics in the way that the average freeper is. :)

My father had NO idea of Kerry's anti-war involvement, which I think is a huge negative for Kerry. My father thought it was.

[OldFriend]

It's all about what happens when the primary is open to all party voters.

Mischief at it's best. Edwards ran very well in the republican districts!!

The media can spin this all they want......we KNOW!

[OldFriend]

So much for Zogby and his special sauce. How will he spin this?