Fair Wisconsin Winner Despite Vote Tally
There is no one in the state who understands politics that actually thinks the GOP truly believed in the constitutional ban on gay marriage as a public policy manner. It was about politics. It was about driving out conservative voters. It was about winning elections.
And the GOP couldn't have been more wrong.
Sure, YES prevailed. I'm not surprised. The only real winners are lawyers who will bring cases deciding what "substantially similar" actually means.
But what Rep. Mark Gundrum and his ilk didn't gauge was how intense the vote NO voters were, and most importantly, WHERE they were.
College students are about 4-to-1 against the amendment. The legislature had competitive seats in a number of districts with college campuses, including at least six for the State Assembly.
What happened yesterday? Four of those districts went into Democratic hands, and a fifth is only six votes off from another Democratic victory. The margin in some of those races is clearly from the campus vote, which was driven by the Vote NO forces.
Oops. The GOP was too clever by half and LOST.
The only question that remains is whether people like Gundrum have to pay the price from his fellow GOPpers for making them loose more seats than anytime in at least 16 years.
One other interesting aside....Appling, the woman who fronted the Vote YES operation, said on the radio she expected about seven percent more vote than the polls showed, due to voters lying about voting NO to not appear to be bigots. We knew the margin was about five to six points by the most recent polling, but in the end that extra margin was there. Indeed, even some bigots understand (and are comfortable) being bigots.
Finally, to everyone who worked on the Fair Wisconsin effort, congratulations. We may have lost on paper, but we won in so many other ways that bigots will not be able to operate the way they have for too long in Wisconsin. We picked up legislative seats due to Vote NO, we put together the most impressive political organization in memory and we introduced a lot of Wisconsinites to recognizing our families and our values. In every state where these measures were introduced, the public opinion of gays and lesbians has dramatically improved from the exposure. As much as it may be hard to see it now, we really won in more ways than may seem apparent. Again, thank you.
posted by Mark Pocan @ 9:28 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Here's a challenge. Are you up to it?
Defend Fair Wisconsin's last minute robo calls. Don't insult my intelligence (and yours) by arguing that they weren't designed to confuse voters, but explain why that was not a morally bankrupt act that Fair Wisconsin and any one associated with it should be ashamed of. This is not a rhetorical question. I really want to know if you think that type of thing can be justified and, if so, why.
To Rick: I don't like the last minute robo calls anymore than you do. It didn't change the damn election though so quit pissing and moaning. Oh and saying that if the amendment failed that teachers would start telling kids that gay couples were morally acceptable and using the "Anna and Eve" garbage wasn't in the least bit morally unacceptable? Plenty of blame to go around.
To Todd: I don't think Fair Wisconsin made this about partisan politics. As a volunteer, we worked hard to make sure that people understood this went beyond party politics and this wasn't a Republican or Democratic issue. Unfortunately we didn't succeed. I really do think this lays the ground work for the future and I agree with Mike Tate saying that a lot of these people voting yes would vote no if the election was 5 to 10 years from now.
Mark, I think its unfair to simply say these people are comfortable being bigots. They're not (otherwise they would have answered Yes to the polls) but they haven't gotten to the point where they can remove or suppress that bigotry totally. Those 7% are going to be on our side in a few years. We just have continue the dialog we started during the campaign. We need to keep changing hearts and minds like we have over the last year. We will win but it may take time. I don't blame you for being angry, you've got a stake in this personally. Injustice IS wrong and delaying justice is also wrong. People don't change their mind quickly sometimes unfortunately though. Dr. King described this best when he said "The arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice."
I'm not "pissing and moaning" and, the ads you refer to are not comparable. I understand that you believe that they played on ignoble sentiments (I disagree). We could discuss that, but its a different question. They did not lie; they did not set out to confuse people.
Saying that other people did things that may not be right isn't an answer. This ad was unique in what it was designed to do. It was the equivalent of placing leaflets in black neighborhoods telling them that, because the polls will be crowded, Democrats will vote on Wednesday.
The reason that I raise the question has nothing to do with the amendment. I'm concerned with campaign ethics. Does anything go?
Rick, I apologize. You are correct that Fair Wisconsin's robocalls were wrong. "Morally bankrupt" might be a stretch as to the definition for it but it was wrong. The emotion of the loss was rather strong so again I apologize for my moral equivocating.
To be fair Rick, you have to admit excluding that last minute robocall fiasco, Fair Wisconsin was very responsible in our message and didn't engage in unethical behavior or out and out lies. We didn't imply that the people opposing us were bigots (as many of us think they are), we didn't say their beliefs were wrong, we didn't say they were trying to recruit our children, we didn't say that our opponent's families were "cheap" and we didn't compare your personal sexual activities to bestiality. Simply put, the Yes side did not hesitate to smear whoever it took to get their way. I never once went to a door and said "vote no or conservative christians will start recruiting your children for bizarre sex acts". Unfortunately we weren't provided the same courtesy from our opponents. You can complain about our last minute loss of morals and it was wrong but be fair on this.
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I don't know what Gundrum said in his call. I was spoke on the amendment but I was not part of the organized effort on its behalf. I would not call Helgeland a maariage case - that's sloppy - but it is absolutely a battlefield in the question of same sex marriage. It presents certain arguments that, if accepted, would make same sex marriage inevitable. I can't say whether the Gundrum call went beyond sloppiness because I really have never heard it.
(Incidentally, I don't think that passage of the amendment necessarily means the the plaintiffs in Helgeland will lose but I'm not getting into the legal ramifications of the amendment until emotions cool.)I have said on my my blog and will again in Sunday's Crossroads section that I debated many amendment opponents who were a joy to know but they were no less likely than proponents to dip below the civility bar. But this thing at the end seems to me to be uniquely duplicitous. It didn't just make bad or even false arguments, it attempted to deceive people into acting in ways that they did not intend. Unless I'm missing something, you have to condemn that (as Eric has done) or argue that this dirty means was justified by the end.
Mark-
Thanks for all your kind words and support throughout this campaign. It means the world to all of us who worked in this effort.
In this campaign, we dared to hope. The thought of one-day forging a fair Wisconsin - for all of us - keeps me hopeful, even in this temporary defeat. One day, we will return Wisconsin to its proper place as a progressive, forward-looking leader- a Wisconsin that we can all be proud of.
Best Regards,
Andrew Gordon
Madison Campus Organizer
Fair Wisconsin
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