Bernie scores “YUGE” New Hampshire victory!

Bernie Sanders easily won the New Hampshire Democratic primary last night. With the vast majority of the precincts reporting and 243,143 total Democratic votes counted, Bernie leads Hillary Clinton, with 148,276 votes (60.98%) for Bernie to 92,880 votes (38.20%) for Hillary.

This is a “yuge” victory, as Bernie himself would put it, for America’s future and middle class, and a total repudiation of the failed Obama-Clinton establishment that has, among other things, threatened to cut Social Security benefits, gave out political giveaways to Monsanto, has refused to close Gitmo, has enacted free-trade deals that ship American jobs to foreign countries, and has openly demonized young people, especially young women. New Hampshire Democrats overwhelmingly voted for a candidate who supports raising the minimum wage to $15/hour nationwide, universal, single-payer health care, reforming the broken criminal justice and law enforcement system in America, and making higher education truly affordable.

Last night, America’s future scored a major victory in New Hampshire. On to Nevada!

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Wisconsin Democratic convention provides first real sign of Berniementum

Although Hillary Clinton received the most votes among the 511 individuals who voted in the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) Convention straw poll, Hillary received only a plurality of the vote in the straw poll, with progressives mostly united around Bernie Sanders, who came in a surprisingly close (even to a Sanders supporter like myself) second place.

Here are the results of the Wisconsin Democratic presidential straw poll:

• 1st – Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of New York – 252 (49.32%)
• 2nd – U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont – 208 (40.70%)
• T-3rd – Vice President Joe Biden of Delaware – 16 (3.13%)
• T-3rd – Former Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland – 16 (3.13%)
• 5th – Former U.S. Senator Jim Webb of Virginia – 8 (1.57%)
• 6th – Former Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island – 5 (0.98%)
• 7th – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts (write-in) – 4 (0.78%)
• 8th – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack of Iowa (write-in) – 1 (0.20%)

Of the 511 straw poll voters, 1 voter, or 0.20% of the total straw poll electorate, did not cast a valid vote for any candidate or write-in candidate in the presidential portion of the straw poll. Of the candidates who received at least one vote, Clinton, Sanders, O’Malley, and Chafee are officially running for the Democratic presidential nomination. A total of 8 candidates received at least one vote. Percentages given for each candidate’s vote total are percentages of the total straw poll electorate.

To say the least, this is the first real sign of trouble for the Hillary Clinton campaign in regards to the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Despite being perceived as the heavy favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary couldn’t even get a majority of the vote in the Wisconsin Democratic straw poll, whose electorate usually consists of Democratic diehards in Wisconsin. More importantly, the Wisconsin straw poll shows that Bernie’s campaign is gaining momentum in a huge way, as he received over 40% of the vote despite a near-blackout of Bernie’s campaign by the corporate media and the political establishment in this country.

The Wisconsin Democratic convention straw poll also featured a gubernatorial straw poll, in which no candidate came even close to a majority of the vote, although there is currently a very strong preference for a gubernatorial candidate from the western part of Wisconsin among many of the Wisconsin Democrats who participated in the straw poll. Here are the results of the gubernatorial straw poll, which also saw 511 ballots cast:

• 1st – State Senator Kathleen Vinehout of Alma – 149 (29.16%)
• 2nd – State Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling of La Crosse – 89 (17.42%)
• 3rd – U.S. Representative Ron Kind of La Crosse – 85 (16.63%)
• 4th – State Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca of Kenosha – 64 (12.52%)
• 5th – Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson of Kaukauna – 55 (10.76%)
• 6th – Dane County Executive Joe Parisi of Madison – 11 (2.15%)
• T-7th – Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk of Madison (write-in) – 3 (0.59%)
• T-7th – Former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold of Middleton (write-in) – 3 (0.59%)
• T-7th – State Senator Chris Larson of Milwaukee (write-in) – 3 (0.59%)
• T-7th – State Assembly Assistant Minority Leader Katrina Shankland of Stevens Point (write-in) – 3 (0.59%)
• T-11th – Business executive Kevin Conroy of Madison (write-in) – 2 (0.39%)
• T-11th – Jefferson County District Attorney Susan Happ of Jefferson (write-in) – 2 (0.39%)
• T-11th – Former Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chairman Mike Tate of Milwaukee (write-in) – 2 (0.39%)
• T-11th – State Representative Chris Taylor of Madison (write-in) – 2 (0.39%)
• T-11th – State Senator Lena Taylor of Milwaukee (write-in) – 2 (0.39%)
• T-16th – State Representative Mandela Barnes of Milwaukee (write-in) – 1 (0.20%)
• T-16th – Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee (write-in) – 1 (0.20%)
• T-16th – Madison Metropolitan School Board Member Mary Burke of Madison (write-in) – 1 (0.20%)
• T-16th – Mayor John Dickert of Racine (write-in) – 1 (0.20%)
• T-16th – State Senator Dave Hansen of Green Bay (write-in) – 1 (0.20%)
• T-16th – Political activist Mike McCabe of Madison (write-in) – 1 (0.20%)
• T-16th – U.S. Representative Gwen Moore of Milwaukee (write-in) – 1 (0.20%)
• T-16th – Mayor Justin Nickels of Manitowoc (write-in) – 1 (0.20%)
• T-16th – U.S. Representative Mark Pocan of Town of Vermont (write-in) – 1 (0.20%)
• T-16th – Manufacturers’ sales representative Neal Plotkin of Milwaukee (write-in) – 1 (0.20%)
• T-16th – State Representative Dana Wachs of Eau Claire (write-in) – 1 (0.20%)

Of the 511 straw poll voters, 25 voters, or 4.89% of the total electorate, did not cast a valid vote for any candidate or write-in candidate in the gubernatorial portion of the straw poll. I am unsure about which municipalities Joe Parisi and Mike Tate live in; as a result, I listed either the county seat of their home county (for Parisi) or their birthplace (for Tate). Some sources list Mark Pocan as living in either Madison or Black Earth; Pocan’s campaign website lists him as a resident of the Town of Vermont in Dane County. WisPolitics.com misspelled the name of Justin Nickels on their online results sheet; they listed Nickels as “Justin Nichols”, likely due to the individual who wrote-in Nickels misspelling his last name. The only information I could find about anyone from Wisconsin named Neal Plotkin is from a 2012 article in The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle that listed Plotkin as a manufacturers’ sales representative from Milwaukee, so this is presumably the Neal Plotkin that the individual cast a write-in vote for. A total of 26 candidates received at least one vote. Percentages given for each candidate’s vote total are percentages of the total straw poll electorate.

While the race for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Wisconsin hasn’t really begun to take shape three and a half years from the next gubernatorial election in Wisconsin, there is already a strong preference for a candidate from the western part of Wisconsin. While Kathleen Vinehout got a plurality of the straw poll vote, she didn’t even come close to a majority of the vote, and the top three candidates, which received a combined 63.21% of the vote, all come from the western part of Wisconsin.

If I had been a Wisconsin resident, a delegate to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin convention, and a participant in the straw poll, I would have voted for Bernie Sanders in the presidential portion of the straw poll and would have wrote-in Lori Compas in the gubernatorial portion of the straw poll (I would never write-in my own name in a straw poll, even though I would be open to the idea of running for Governor of Wisconsin in 2018 if I move to Wisconsin before 2018). Of the candidates who received at least one vote in the gubernatorial portion of the straw poll, I have a favorable opinion of Parisi, Feingold, Shankland, Chris Taylor, Barnes, Hansen, McCabe, Moore, and Pocan, with McCabe, the head of the progressive group Blue Jean Nation, being my favorite of those.

BREAKING NEWS: Martha Laning elected Wisconsin Democratic chairwoman

It’s official…former Wisconsin State Senate candidate Martha Laning is the new chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. According to Shawn Johnson of Wisconsin Public Radio, here are the official results:

1. Martha Laning – 721 (53.45%)
2. Jason Rae – 428 (31.73%)
3. Joe Wineke – 191 (14.16%)
4. Stephen Smith – 6 (0.44%)
5. Jeff Smith – 3 (0.22%)

A total of 1,349 valid votes were cast for a chair candidate by delegates and alternates who were elevated to delegate status prior to the vote. Of the five chair candidates, Jeff Smith dropped out of the race right before the DPW Convention and officially nominated Laning, however his name remained on the ballot.

Laning ran on, among other things, identifying the cause of lower turnout in midterm elections, promising a more inclusive Democratic Party of Wisconsin, providing more financial and technical support to county-level Democratic organizations in Wisconsin, encouraging Democratic candidates in Wisconsin to use values-based messaging based at least loosely on George Lakoff-style messaging (more on that here), and helping candidates use foreign-language materials to reach out to Wisconsin voters who don’t speak English as their first language. In short, Laning has promised a stronger, more inclusive Democratic Party of Wisconsin, and I will hold her accountable to her promises.

For a while, it appeared for quite a while that Jason Rae was going to win the chair’s race easily. However, many of Rae’s staunchest supporters attacked Laning, me, and everyone else that opposed Rae in any way, shape, or form, and Rae himself had a royalist mindset throughout his campaign. Another problem that gave Rae nothing but trouble during his campaign was his affiliation with Nation Consulting, a Milwaukee-based political consulting firm. As I wrote about a month ago, Thad Nation, the head of Nation Consulting and Rae’s employer, used a political front group to give tens of thousands of dollars to right-wing political organizations that have strongly opposed Democratic and progressive causes. I’m not sure how many delegates I managed to persuade to vote for a non-Rae candidate with that blog post, if any, but I can say that it certainly didn’t help Rae’s campaign at all.

Additionally, Laning benefited from the implosion of the Jeff Smith campaign for chair. About a week or so before the convention, Jeff Smith sent a letter to delegates, which was received by at least one DPW official that I know of, in which Jeff Smith offered Laning a job if he had been elected. Laning responded by criticizing Jeff Smith for using campaign literature to tout a job offer without her permission. That ended any chance of Jeff Smith being elected chair, so he bowed out right before the convention, and, in a move that helped solidify Laning’s “party unity” credentials, Laning allowed Jeff Smith to officially nominate her for chair.

Initially, I despised Laning and her candidacy. When I first heard that Laning was going to run for DPW Chair, I thought that she’d be a terrible candidate for DPW Chair, as I initially viewed her as a candidate of appeasement towards Republicans. However, when Jeff Smith dropped out of the race, I reviewed Laning’s plans for the DPW, and I quickly realized that Laning would be the best candidate to lead the Democratic Party in the state that could be the most critical to a national Democratic victory next year. I sincerely apologize to Martha Laning and her supporters for my criticisms of her campaign prior to Jeff Smith exiting the race for DPW Chair.

One person I will credit for Laning’s victory (other than Laning herself, who obviously deserves most of the credit), is Lori Compas, a professional photographer and the organizer of the unsuccessful, but valiant, recall attempt against Republican Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald in 2012. While the endorsement of Wisconsin State Senator Kathleen Vinehout was the first noteworthy endorsement that Laning received, Compas endorsed Laning early on in her campaign, and, when Compas endorsed Laning, that was the first time I viewed Laning as a serious candidate for DPW chair. Laning’s coalition of support represented a cross-section of the DPW, ranging from ultra-progressives like former Madison Common Council member Satya Rhodes-Conway to centrists like Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris. For all the talk about Vinehout’s political instincts, nobody in Wisconsin has better political instincts than Lori Compas, and Laning’s victory is an example of that.

Martha Laning is going to have a lot of pressure to lead the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to victory next year, because Wisconsin is probably the one state that is going to decide control of the White House and the U.S. Senate in the 2016 elections.