WI Court Election Too Close to Call

The Los Angeles Times reports:

A normally humdrum Wisconsin judicial race that turned into a referendum on Gov. Scott Walker's battle with public-employee unions remained virtually deadlocked Wednesday morning. Conservative Supreme Court Justice David Prosser held a narrow lead, 835 votes, over his challenger, Assistant Atty. Gen. JoAnne Kloppenburg, in a battle that could shift the balance of power in the state.

The contest seemed likely to drag on at least through the day's end as the last few Wisconsin precincts were counted. If the count is contested, it could go on far longer, prolonging the battle over Walker's union measure, which has dominated state politics for the last two months.

More than $3 million in outside money poured into the technically nonpartisan contest, which became especially contentious after the Legislature passed Walker's labor bill in March.

In a sign of how heated the reelection campaign became for Prosser, who was seeking his second 10-year term, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin weighed in on his behalf and national "tea party" groups ran ads attacking Kloppenburg as anti-business. The last time Prosser ran, he was unopposed.

Prosser's campaign had vowed last year that he would be a "complement" to Walker and the newly elected Republican legislative majority. But that was before Walker proposed curtailing collective-bargaining rights for most public workers in Wisconsin.

The proposal triggered huge labor protests, the flight of 14 Democrats to Illinois in a futile attempt to prevent Senate action and contentious court challenges likely to reach the state high court.

A judge in Madison, Wis., put the union measure on hold last month, finding it had been passed in violation of the open-meetings law. The state's Republican attorney general is appealing.

Democrats and their union allies have poured money and enthusiasm into the otherwise overlooked judicial race.

State officials had forecast a turnout of 20%. But by Tuesday evening, election officials were reporting long lines of people waiting to vote. Polling stations in Fond du Lac ran out of ballots, and in Milwaukee and Madison, county clerks projected that as many as 60% of eligible voters were going to the polls.