I'm writing to you from Wisconsin, ground zero in the fight between Republicans and the middle class, where we just had a HUGE win!
I'm literally breathless. I'm witnessing history. Incumbent candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court generally get re-elected in a landslide. But in the general election on Tuesday, progressive JoAnne Kloppenburg closed the gap and won by a razor thin margin against conservative justice David Prosser!
The result was extremely close, and there's still a recount to grapple with, but this is a HUGE change from the primary where she lost 25% to 55% to conservative Justice David Prosser before Walker's attacks on workers began. And it's proof that the grassroots army that formed to battle Governor Scott Walker is a force to be reckoned with.
Tuesday night, all of us volunteers sat around the Kloppenburg office, right next to the Wisconsin 14, and watched these historic returns come in together.
And I knew it was happening because thousands of us MoveOn members, along with our friends and allies, voted, volunteered, knocked doors, hit the phones, and got out the vote through our emails, posts and tweets. We're a part of this, but now we need to make sure what happened in Wisconsin doesn't stay in Wisconsin.
The Republicans in Washington are copying Walker's radical "my way or the highway" tactics, threatening to shutdown the government in order to force the Democrats to cave on the budget. They're willing to harm countless Americans in order to impose their agenda on the rest of us.
But MoveOn is fighting back, just like we are in Wisconsin. They're planning a huge nationwide campaign, capturing the energy from our victory to win this massive battle for our nation's future against the Republicans' plans to destroy decades of progressive legislation, including our entire social safety net.
I read a quote the other day from the Tea Party Express, and while I wouldn't normally agree with them, they could not be more right about the stakes in this election:
"If...liberal Joanne Kloppenburg wins, then Barack Obama and his union...allies will have won...If conservative Justice David Prosser wins, then Gov. Scott Walker and the tea party movement will have won in Wisconsin. The stakes could not be higher."1
The result of this election will have an important impact right here in Wisconsin on the battle to protect workers' rights. But a Kloppenburg victory is also sending a message nationally that Americans are rejecting the radical right-wing Republican agenda sweeping across other states and our federal government.
I need your help to keep the momentum going. We're doing great here in Wisconsin, but MoveOn needs your support to make sure the growing grassroots movement to protect the American Dream doesn't stall at our state's border.
They need to raise $215,000 today to do it—for ads, field mobilizations, and polling. Can you help?
Click below to chip in $75:
Thank you for all that you're doing.
–Steve Hughes
Sources:
1. "Big money, union fight shape Wisconsin court race," Politico, accessed April 7, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207497&id=26839-4033832-D3uUe3x&t=7
Sources:
1. "Big money, union fight shape Wisconsin court race," Politico, accessed April 7, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=207497&id=26839-4033832-D3uUe3x&t=7
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