Northern voters came out strong for Walker; Barrett won’t press charges against woman who slapped him; more briefs

Talk about it

Gov. Scott Walker can thank voters in the northern half of Wisconsin for his recall election victory Tuesday, according Milwaukee Journal Sentinel voter analyst Craig Gilbert.

He found that much of Walker’s large base in southeast Wisconsin either gave him 2% more or 2% fewer votes than they gave him in 2010 when the Republican first won the governor’s office.

But in most counties in central and northern Wisconsin, Walker’s share of the vote grew by at least 4%, and in a dozen counties, it grew by 6% or more.

Meanwhile, Democrat Tom Barrett carried the counties with Milwaukee and Madison by larger margins than he did 17 months ago, but his support did not increase out-state.

Despite the intense polarization, exit polls from Tuesday showed that independent swing voters still matter in state elections, and this time, they generally went for Walker.

The exit polls showed that 37% of Walker’s voters were moderates; 27% supported Walker even though they had a favorable opinion of the public unions whose power was virtually stripped by the governor; and 9% of Walker voters did not approve of his collective bargaining changes but still voted for him anyway. Walker carried five of every six Wisconsin counties on Tuesday, with an overall victory margin of 7%.

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Barrett won’t press charges against woman who slapped him

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says he will not press charges against a woman who slapped him in the face after he conceded defeat in Tuesday’s recall election for governor.

A TV news video of the incident went viral on the Internet Wednesday.

The woman confronted Barrett right after he gave his concession speech after 10 p.m. She said the Democrat should not have conceded while people were still waiting in line to vote in Milwaukee.

But city officials said the final ballots were actually cast at 9:35 – a good half hour before Barrett spoke.

The woman asked to slap Barrett in the face, but when he offered to hug her instead, she slapped him anyway.

Yesterday, the mayor said that’s “life in the big city.” With all the passion in the recall effort, Barrett said he understood that people were frustrated.

He said he was surprised about getting slapped but, “You move on.”

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Plans to attempt to recall Michigan governor dropped

A group that was trying to recall Michigan’s Republican governor has given up, saying that Tuesday’s results in Wisconsin showed how hard it would be.

The group Michigan Rising also said it’s been short of its goals for collecting recall signatures against Gov. Rick Snyder.

So instead, the group plans to make a long-term effort to create a progressive think tank, develop progressive leaders and support the ones they have.

Officials in Snyder’s administration say people are focusing more on recent budget and economic improvements than on a recall campaign.

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Unions doubt Walker open to dialogue

Two leaders of the state’s largest teachers union say they’re not sure whether Gov. Walker would be open to a fresh dialogue about public education.

WEAC president Mary Bell said there needs to be a better way to have a civil discussion.

Bell and union executive director Dan Burkhalter told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the group spent about $4 million on the effort to recall Walker. Most of it was on Kathleen Falk’s unsuccessful primary bid, which she lost to Tom Barrett last month.

Burkhalter said the union had all its “chips in” because they had nothing to lose after Walker and his fellow Republicans cut state school aid and virtually ended collective bargaining for school unions.

Walker and his supporters said many schools were able to save money by finding more cost-effective health insurance and making employees pay more for toward their health care and pensions.

WEAC has lost about 20,000 members since the union limits took effect. The union now has around 70,000 members and plans a series of membership drives this summer.

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UW regents consider 5.5% tuition hike

The UW Board of Regents is expected to act today on a proposed 5.5% tuition increase for this fall.

UW President Kevin Reilly announced the proposed increase on Monday, and the UW’s policy-setting body will discuss it when it meets in Milwaukee.

The flagship Madison campus would no longer have the lowest tuition among Big Ten Conference schools. It would put the UW in about the middle of the pack.

This is the sixth year in a row that tuition at the four-year campuses would jump by 5.5%. The budget does not address financial aid, which was not increased in the state budget adopted a year ago.

UW Senior Vice President David Olien said Wisconsin has one of the weakest financial aid programs in the nation. He said it must be addressed if the university is going to address the job-and-business issues being raised by politicians at the state level. Meanwhile, the UW is under pressure to raise its number of graduates. The connection between graduates at the state’s economy came up a number of times at a meeting of a task force that’s considering flexibilities and a restructuring of the UW System. That panel is expected to make its recommendations later this summer.

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Family Action challenged Internet gambling

The group that helped ban gay marriage in Wisconsin has a new target -- Internet gambling.

Wisconsin Family Action and similar groups in a dozen other states have asked Congress to toughen the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

That’s after the U.S. Justice Department ruled last December that it’s not against federal laws to run in-state online betting that does not involve sports teams.

In a letter, the 13 family groups said they don’t want the Internet to become a giant online casino. They said the costs to society would far outweigh the tax revenues that cash-strapped states are clamoring to get.

Kent Ostrander of Kentucky’s Family Foundation said an expansion of gambling would “separate a family from its assets.” He said there would be more broken homes and families than society can afford.

The Wisconsin Family Action group was the main force behind the approval of a constitutional amendment several years ago to ban gay marriage and civil unions in Wisconsin.

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Teen loves buses so he stole one

A Fond du Lac County boy who loves buses has been arrested for stealing one.

Fond du Lac Police said a 15-year-old Campbellsport boy ran away from home, and he was looking for a place to stay Monday night when he saw a school bus with the keys left inside.

Authorities said the youngster drove the bus to West Bend. He told officers he followed traffic laws, including stops at railroad crossings.

West Bend Police arrested the youngster when he parked the vehicle at a school bus yard around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. He’s been referred to juvenile authorities.

Tags: state news, wisconsin, government