With nearly half the votes counted in the six recall elections of Republican state senators in Wisconsin, signs were growing that the GOP might just withstand the record-high Democratic spending to end their 19-to-14 seat majorithy in the state senate. In the first race to be called, State Sen. Rob Cowles of Green Bay has just been projected the winner over former Brown County Executive Nancy Nusbaum, a liberal Democrat well-known from past races for other offices.
Nusbaum had run a campaign slamming both Republicans in Washington and the Badger State's GOP Gov. Scott Walker for supporting tax cuts that she said favored the rich. Taking a page from the Obama Administration's assault on tax cuts for the higher wage earners, Nusbaum repeatedly declared "It's just not fair."
Democrats had high hopes for Nusbaum because of their own polls reportedly showing Walker with negative ratings from more than 60% of Green Bay area voters. With Cowles a winner and Republicans now leading in four of the five other districts in which they were challenged, August 9 may, as veteran GOP political consultant Scott Becher put it, "not be a terrible night for Republicans after all."
