Democrats keep executive, legislative branch ‘firewalls’ – Isthmus

“Firewalls.” You heard that term a lot before the Nov. 8 election. 

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers had to win to keep the “firewall” that vetoed 126 bills passed by Republican legislators. And Democrats needed a “firewall” to stop those Republican legislators from having the two-thirds majorities in the Legislature needed to override Evers vetoes.

So the 51 percent to 49 percent win by Evers over Republican Tim Michels was a major victory for Democrats. And although Republicans will have a two-thirds grip on the 33-member Senate, there will be no two-thirds Republican majority in the 99-member Assembly. Assembly Republicans gained three seats, giving them 64-35 control.

Because about 68,500 voters helped re-elect U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson but then voted for Evers, some Republicans are asking if former Republican Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch — and not Michels — could have beaten Evers. Kleefisch and Capitol veterans who ran her campaign never reconciled with the Michels campaign after his August win in the primary. What if they had?

It’s just one of many takeaways from Tuesday’s election.

Despite loss, Barnes built the Democratic base: Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes got 1.3 million votes in his loss to Johnson — a record for an African American Milwaukee native. That’s three times the 402,798 votes that another African American, former Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler, got in his 2008 loss to former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman.

Barnes is Milwaukee’s “hometown hero,” Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Moore bragged before Barnes gave a short, Bible-laced (“I have run the race”) concession speech.

The 35-year-old Barnes, is now a tested — and wiser — candidate who must carefully pick his next opportunity. He’s wiser because he will learn from the political mugging he got from “soft on crime” ads run by Johnson and third-party groups supporting Johnson.

Crime, which polls suggested was not a top priority of Democratic voters, was not a major issue before the August Democratic primary — a primary that could have sharpened Barnes’s response to that issue. It didn’t, so his campaign failed to have an effective answer to blunt Johnson’s aggressive ads on crime.

Most significant final-days quote: Michels told supporters, “Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after I’m elected governor.” 

In damage-control mode, campaign aides scrambled to say that their candidate meant that a Michels administration would result in “lower taxes, better schools, uniform election laws and safer communities,” so thankful voters would then elect Republicans.

But Evers and Democrats told voters that the Republican’s meaning was clear: As governor, he would work with GOP legislators to rig future elections. Michels “admitted he would undermine the will of Wisconsin voters,” the Evers campaign insisted.

Northwest Wisconsin goes red: Tuesday’s election ended —once and for all — Democrats’ claims on northwest Wisconsin. Four Republicans — Congressman Tom Tiffany, state Sen.-elect Romaine Quinn, Representatives-elect Angie Sapik and Chanz Green won.

Consider that,…