Jul 13 2011
Wisconsin Dems Prevail in Primaries, Despite Republican Interference
Wisconsin voters went to the polls yesterday in 6 districts to elect Democrats against recalled Republican state senators in Democratic primaries. The recall effort is aimed at taking power away from Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Senate Republicans who rammed through an anti-union bill in the state after weeks of protest and a political stand-off earlier this year. In a big twist in this already historic campaign, Republicans ran as fake Democrats in yesterday’s Democratic primaries in a so-called protest move. There were also reports yesterday that registered Democratic voters received confusing robo-calls meant to keep them from the polls. However Wisconsin Dems had a strong turn-out in spite of the political antics and all six candidates from their party won their primaries, 5 with more than 60% of the vote. The recall election process will stretch through the summer until mid August. Wisconsin Democrats need to keep their seats and take three additional seats from Republicans to gain control of the state legislature.
GUEST: John Nichols, political writer for The Nation Magazine, contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin, co-founder of Free Press, co-author with Bob McChesney of The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again
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