The most important election so far in 2011 – a swing seat on the Supreme Court of Wisconsin – has just been narrowly won by Justice Prosser, but will likely be challenged by his opponent.
Despite 1.5 million votes being cast, the difference between the two is amazingly only 7,582 votes!
The government unions put huge amounts of money into this effort to defeat Justice Prosser, as part of their effort to overturn budget reform, and will almost certainly ask for a recount.
Just a week ago, Justice Prosser was in real trouble. Prosser had gone from winning his primary handily, to moving in the wrong direction with bad momentum. Last week he was down 46%-41% — and for an incumbent that’s goner-time, because typically undecideds break two to one for the challenger, and lately they are breaking three to one, four to one, even five to one.
Seeing the massive effort against Justice Prosser, those who wanted to see real, serious, and sustainable reforms that respect the will of the taxpayer rallied.
Fabulous grass roots work was done by several groups. There was a great TV ad made in the final hours, (the genesis of which we’re gratified to say was a call-script idea we’d come up with for IWV calls), that John Fund of the Wall Street Journal said was recieved as "the cavalry coming over the hill" in the final weekend.
Independent Women’s Voice is proud to have played a role in making this election as close as it is. Until IWV stepped in, no one was reaching out to most women and Independents – the critical audience in this and most other races.
Independent Women’s Voice, having done the research and messaging work on Wisconsin, and written about part of it in an op-ed in the Daily Caller, used that expertise to call over 500,000 households, targeting women and Independents, educating them about the real issues that matter to Wisconsinites.
Those of you who make us possible should pat yourselves on the back: just by existing, Independent Women’s Voice opened our team’s strategic reach and filled a serious capacity gap, by allowing us to speak effectively to those who care about our issues, but might not qualify as the choir.
Understand: the war has only just begun. This election was only the first of a series of efforts by the Left to win control of the Supreme Court and retake the Wisconsin legislature, all to undo budget reform, and send a message to any other Governor or state that is trying to listen to taxpayers like you.
Now, the next fights begins, in the various upcoming special and recall elections this spring and summer. There’s a conflict of visions here — between the fiscal sanity the taxpayers want, and the entrenched interests of government union leaders (often at the expense of their own workers, like Wisconsin’s Teacher of the Year who they let go rather than change their seniority rules. The heck with the kids and quality education!).
Given how close this last election was, we know the special interests that see the taxpayers’ hard earned contributions as their bottomless trough will just redouble their efforts to protect their perks.
Independent Women’s Voice, with your help, is continuing and extending our efforts to make sure that these elections are not manipulated to overturn what the citizens of Wisconsin voted for in November, and that the budget reforms that will benefit the citizens of Wisconsin and serve as a model for other states will survive.
There is a great deal of work to be done, educating the citizens with basic facts and correcting the narrative, which has moved from a right/wrong fight, to a right/left fight. We need to fix that if we are going to be able to win.
Would you contribute to help us continue our work in Wisconsin? These will be very expensive months ahead, but the fight is tremendous in its import, and it is your contribution that will allow us to make a difference. The government union bosses know how much this matters, and are going to put everything they can into this fight. So should we, with as much ingenuity, integrity, and efficacy as we can.
That is exactly what Independent Women’s Voice intends to do.
It's rare when a relatively small election takes on national significance, but this is one of those times. If we succeed in our effort, it will send a message to policymakers everywhere that they can and should fight for sustainable budgets and fair treatment of all citizens, not special privileges for special interests, paid for with our money and our children’s, and our country’s, future.
Thank you kindly,
Heather R. Higgins
President & CEO
Independent Women's Voice