Defying Pyrrhus
After losing the state supreme court race, gaining control of the Wisconsin senate would have been good news for Democrats and labor unions – though with a Republican governor and a Republican assembly one has to wonder how much practical effect it would have had. That didn’t happen, but the efforts of both sides to declare victory seem strained.
When you spend millions just to hold on to what you already have, and lose two seats in the bargain, it can’t be considered a great accomplishment.
On the other hand, when you spend millions of dollars to pick up no more than two (pending next week’s recalls) inconsequential state senate seats, neither can it be considered a great accomplishment. Just last week, Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate said “our polling tells that we have leads in three of these races and we are dead tied in three.” I’m guessing that polling money wasn’t well spent.
The Washington Post‘s Rachel Weiner called the election an ”undeniable defeat for labor and for progressive activists.” The Daily Kos called it “a real victory.”
Victories like these would undo just about anyone else, but I’ve yet to see any bottom to the well of union political spending. Wisconsin has shown that the unions can be defeated even if they have a high priority goal, but they are much better situated to prevail in a war of attrition. We can expect Wisconsin-style battles to continue for some time yet.
