"Baldwin officials said the numbers were not final but that she has taken the lead and the margin is too large for Hovde to make up."

It says here in "Tammy Baldwin declares victory in Wisconsin Senate race in 2024 election over Eric Hovde" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

With 97.3% of the votes counted, Baldwin led Hovde by 49.2% to 48.7% — a margin of nearly 16,000 votes — in a race that drew attention and big bucks from around the country. Absentee ballots had not yet been counted in Racine and Oshkosh and votes had not all been counted in various places in Oshkosh.... The Democratic incumbent outperformed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who was losing to former President Donald Trump by more than 41,000 votes.

Control of the Senate doesn't hinge on this race: "Republicans Clinch Control of the Senate/After picking up seats in West Virginia and Ohio and winning an unexpectedly close race in Nebraska, the G.O.P. had enough for a majority. Tight races in swing states will determine their margin" (NYT).

"The ad... could be the final shot in an extremely negative campaign. It puts the spotlight on [Tammy] Baldwin’s personal life..."

"... in an attempt to turn a low-key Midwesterner into a high-flying East Coast elitist. And it also tries to invert one of Democrats’ most effective criticisms of [Eric] Hovde, the extremely wealthy chairman and chief executive of a bank in Utah."

I'm reading "In Wisconsin’s Senate Race, the Republican Highlights Baldwin’s Sexuality/Eric Hovde is closing out his challenge to Senator Tammy Baldwin, a low-key Midwesterner, with a new attack ad that appears to want to make sure voters know she’s gay" (NYT).

Is Hovde just fighting fire with fire on the issue of who really lives in Wisconsin or should this be considered some sort of gay baiting?

IN THE COMMENTS: Bushman of the Kohlrabi gives what I think is the correct response to the NYT's accusation:

Tammy is openly gay. She has been praised for her gayness by major state and national media outlets for years. She has been openly celebrated and supported by LGBT groups since she was first elected to the Senate. Every Wisconsinite with a pulse knows she’s gay. Is she now saying she’s embarrassed to be gay? More likely she just doesn’t want voters to know if her partner benefited financially from her Senate gig.

Tammy Baldwin and Eric Hovde — the U.S. Senate candidates for Wisconsin — had their one and only debate last night.

A big Wall Street Journal article about the Tammy Baldwin/Eric Hovde race for the U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin.

I'm reading "Democrat Woos Dairy Farmers to Keep Crucial Senate Seat/Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin hits country roads and agricultural fairs, seeking to win over rural Trump supporters once more." 

Baldwin’s campaign for a third term against the wealthy banker Eric Hovde, who says the Democrat is an out-of-touch career politician, has sent her down country roads in sparsely populated counties that cut through farmland and curve around lakes....

Baldwin has to win for Democrats to have a chance of hanging on to the Senate, where the party clings to a 51-49 majority and faces a difficult map this fall. They have already thrown in the towel regarding West Virginia....

The article doesn't have as much dairy cow detail as I was hoping to see, but there is this: 

At a dairy farm outside Merrill, Wis., a small town in a deeply red region that Baldwin lost in 2018, a farmer, Hans Breitenmoser, 55, gave Baldwin a tour that led them through a cavernous barn past cows that poked their heads through metal fencing and bales of hay to watch. As Breitenmoser, a registered Democrat, paused to explain how megafarming operations put pressure on smaller ones, Baldwin let a calf nibble on her fist....

"President Biden arrives Friday in Madison, Wis., for what will be a critical few hours as he holds a rally attempting to inject new life..."

"... into a flagging campaign and sits for an ABC News interview as part of an effort to demonstrate his verbal and mental ability...."

I'm reading "Biden faces critical day to push back against calls to withdraw/With a rally in Wisconsin and an interview on ABC, Biden hopes to begin turning the tide after days of criticism of his recent debate performance" (WaPo).

Where is this "rally"? When is it? This is happening in my city, and I can't find anything in the local press about how a person could actually attend this event. Might I stumble into it if I go traipsing about? Will George Stephanopoulos and Biden do their interview in a room with an audience? It's disturbing that Biden has been hidden away throughout his campaign, so if the idea is now finally to emerge into view, why is he so hard to see?

Biden is scheduled to arrive in Wisconsin early Friday afternoon, with plans to be in the state for a few hours....

Does that sound like they want us to see him?

"All Washington does is divide us and talk about who’s to blame.... That’s not the country I know and love. I believe we need to come together and find common sense solutions to restore America."

Says Eric Hovde, quoted in "Eric Hovde launches Wisconsin Senate bid, handing GOP a boost" (The Hill).

Hovde seeks the Republican nomination for the Senate seat held by Democrat Tammy Baldwin.

"The people on the Republican side are highly concerned about what’s happening in this country and realize how important this Wisconsin U.S. Senate race is."

"I would hope that they would have those conversations and decide amongst themselves. Instead of having a nasty primary, let’s back one of us and move forward."

Said Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, quoted in "Republicans look to fill a glaring hole in their Senate recruitment map/Wisconsin is one of the closest states in the country, but the GOP hasn't yet landed its candidate to face Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin" (NBC News).

[Possible candidate Scott] Mayer echoes Johnson’s thinking. “We really don’t want a bloody primary,” he told NBC News. “But it’s a free country,” he added....

"But to convince at least 10 Republicans to back the measure, [Tammy] Baldwin knew she had to overcome skepticism from many Republicans that Democrats just wanted to put them on the spot..."

"... on an issue that public opinion had recently deserted them on, as well as fierce opposition from social conservative groups and some religious institutions.... 'I think there was a short period of time where there was a belief that this was being pushed for political reasons,' Baldwin said. 'My Republican colleagues would say to me: "Nobody thinks you’re pushing this for political reasons. They think others are, like the Democratic Party. But nobody is questioning your motives." I think that’s helpful. I mean, I really am earnest about this.'..."

From "How a bipartisan group of senators got same-sex marriage protections passed/A group of Democrats and Republicans, led by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, spent months working to get 12 Republicans onboard with the legislation" (WaPo).

"The Senate held a key test vote on Wednesday on legislation to allow federal protections for same-sex marriage, with 12 Republicans joining all Democrats..."

"... to help move it through the 50-50 chamber. In one of their first major agenda items in the postelection session, Democrats moved fast to enact the bill — which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal benefits to same-sex couples — while their party still controls both chambers. Should the bill pass the Senate in a vote that is expected after Thanksgiving, it would need to pass the House in its revised form before being sent to President Biden to be signed into law. The push in Congress to pass marriage protections came after Justice Clarence Thomas suggested in an opinion overturning abortion rights that the court 'should reconsider' past rulings that established marriage equality and access to contraception."

From "Live Updates: Senate Takes Crucial Step Toward Protecting Same-Sex Marriage Rights/Democrats are moving quickly to enact federal protections while their party still controls both chambers. Republican senators voted to keep Senator Mitch McConnell as their minority leader; the party is on the brink of capturing a majority in the House" (NYT).

Why are they only just now getting around to repealing the Defense of Marriage Act? Anyway, it's good to see this happening at long last. Maybe they didn't think they needed to do it until the Democrats lost the House, or maybe they chose not to do it so that it wouldn't be an issue in the elections. But, really, what kind of people want there to be a threat to existing marriages? 

And it's nice to see Wisconsin Senator — and former student of mine — Tammy Baldwin featured on the front page of the NYT on this issue, which I strongly support.

And thanks to all the Republicans who voted for this: Susan Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — the co-sponsors — and Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Mitt Romney of Utah, Richard Burr of Virginia, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Todd Young of Indiana, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

What controversial issue is uniting right-wing Ron Johnson and left-wing Tammy Baldwin?

Ending the protection of wolves.

The bill comes after a federal judge in California last month ordered protections be restored for wolves across most of the U.S. after the Trump administration removed them from the endangered species list. Re-listing wolves on the list effectively banned any wolf hunting or trapping seasons and prohibited farmers and ranchers from killing wolves preying on livestock.

ADDED: "We have doomed the wolf not for what it is but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be: the mythologized epitome of a savage, ruthless killer—which is, in reality, not more than the reflected image of ourselves. We have made it the scapewolf for our own sins."

"A new Marquette Law School Poll of Wisconsin voters finds a tight race for governor following last week’s statewide primary elections."

"Among likely voters (that is, those who say they are certain to vote), incumbent Republican Scott Walker receives 46 percent, Democrat Tony Evers receives 46 percent... Among likely voters in the race for the Wisconsin U.S. Senate seat on the ballot in November, 49 percent support the incumbent, Democrat Tammy Baldwin, and 47 percent support Republican Leah Vukmir....  Evers is viewed favorably among 38 percent of likely voters and unfavorably by 27 percent.... Vukmir has a 30 percent favorable rating and a 29 percent unfavorable rating among likely voters... Walker is viewed favorably among 49 percent of likely voters and unfavorably by 47 percent... Baldwin has a 46 percent favorable rating and a 42 percent unfavorable rating among likely voters...."

Marquette Law School press release.

"An almond doesn’t lactate, I will confess."

Said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, quoted in "Senators Ask ‘What Is Milk?’/Dairy industry wants to limit the word to what comes out of cows" (Business Insider).

The Senate voted, 14-84, to defeat an amendment, offered by Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, that would kill spending on a Food and Drug Administration study on what can be marketed as milk.

“Consumers are not deceived by these labels,” said Lee. “No one buys almond milk under the false illusion that it came from a cow. They buy it because it didn’t come from a cow.”...

Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin called the amendment “an attack on dairy farmers”...

“These labeling requirements play right into the hands of the large, cronyist food industries that want to place new, innovative products at a disadvantage,” said Lee in a statement last week.

That actually is an attack on dairy farmers — cronyist.

I wrote about the what-is-milk issue long ago. In 2005, in a post called "Sitting in a café":

Extremely mild irritation of the morning (heightened by my caffeination): a man orders a coffee drink made with soy milk. Unless you're allergic to milk or moralistically vegan, don't order soy milk! What are you doing? Soy is a bean -- or, really, a legume. Do you drink peanut milk? Lentil milk? There is no milk, not even juice in a soy bean. So what is this soy "milk"? It's some kind of water containing tiny bean particles. That's not aesthetically correct.

I had to update to say:

An emailer writes: "Hel-lo! Coffee! Cocoa! ... Water with bean particles makes my whole life better, dammit." Wait! Cocoa goes in milk. But still, I get the point. And what is milk anyway? Water with -- what? Why do I favor it solely because the water has been transformed inside an animal rather than suitably boiled and then mixed with a pure powder of human manufacture? Why do I want my liquids to be something that appear in their final form in the natural state? Every other liquid that emerges from the body of an animal is something we -- most of us -- hate to drink a glassful of. The wonder, then, is that we find cow's milk aesthetically pleasing.

After 8 years, we finally got our 7th Circuit judge — as the Senate votes in defiance of Tammy Baldwin.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports:

The Senate voted along party lines to confirm Milwaukee attorney Michael Brennan to fill an opening on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The tally was 49-46. The seat has been open for more than eight years, the longest ever for the nation’s appellate courts.

The Senate gives lawmakers a chance to weigh in on a judicial nominee from their home state by submitting a blue-colored form called the “blue slip.” A positive blue slip signals the Senate to move forward with the nomination process. A negative blue slip, or withholding it altogether, signals a senator’s objection and almost always stalls the nomination.

Until this year, it had been nearly three decades since the Senate confirmed a judge without two positive blue slips. Brennan’s confirmation marked the second time it has happened this year. Baldwin declined to return her blue slip.

"State Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Brookfield, issued a press release Wednesday with an image of Baldwin alongside Khalid Sheikh Muhammed... labeled Team Terrorists.'"

"The image includes photos of Vukmir and [Gina] Haspel with the label 'Team America," the Wisconsin State Journal reports. Baldwin is up for re-election this fall, and Vukmir is one of the GOP candidates. The primary isn't until August. According to the news article, Baldwin has not met with Haspel or taken a position on her confirmation.

What do you think of that ad?

Excellent — clear, hard-hitting, justified.

Acceptable, but another choice would have been better.

Bad. Makes me question Vukmir's judgment.

Atrocious. Really embarrassing for Vukmir.

 

pollcode.com free polls

I have officially hit my limit on news reports of what's happening in social media.

This is what put me over the edge: "Tammy Baldwin opposes Donald Trump's SCOTUS pick, sparks Twitter war with Scott Walker."

If mainstream journalism thinks it's better than social media, it should go out and find real-world events to describe and explain. I can read social media for myself.

And I'm especially sick of the ridiculous hyperbole like "war."

If you want mainstream prestige, talk about what is important and use grownup language. Don't effuse like a teenager about the nonevent that somebody said something on-line and then somebody else retorted.

A problem with Democrats looking at 2018 and counting on the way the party out of power has, historically, lost ground.

I'm reading the Wisconsin State Journal's report on a memo Senator Tammy Baldwin just sent around to supporters:

The first-term Baldwin, D-Madison, says she’s prepared to have the GOP target on her back. In a memo to supporters Monday, Baldwin campaign manager Scott Spector said she’s “in strong position” to win re-election....

The Baldwin memo notes midterm elections historically favor the party out of power — which, in 2018, will be Democrats.

How will that work this time? The relationship between the GOP and President Trump is too tenuous to lay the usual foundation. With Trump, one might say both parties are out of power.

"The most powerful and ambitious Republican-led Congress in 20 years will convene Tuesday with plans to leave its mark on virtually every facet of American life..."

"... refashioning the country’s social safety net, wiping out scores of labor and environmental regulations and unraveling some of the most significant policy prescriptions put forward by the Obama administration...."

But as Republicans plan to reserve the first 100 days of Congress for their more partisan goals, Democrats are preparing roadblocks. The party’s brutal election-year wounds have been salted by evidence of Russian election interference, Mr. Trump’s hard-line cabinet picks and his taunting Twitter posts. (On Saturday, he offered New Year’s wishes “to all,” including “those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do.”)

So... they do know what to do? The idea is to put up "roadblocks."

The Senate may be narrowly divided, but among the 48 senators in the Democratic caucus* are 10 who will stand for re-election in two years in states that voted for Mr. Trump. Republicans are counting on their support, at least some of the time.

But on many issues, Senate Democrats — including their new leader, Chuck Schumer of New York — are expected to pivot from postelection carping to active thwarting, using complex Senate procedures and political messaging to slow or perhaps block elements of Mr. Trump’s agenda.

You know the stages of grief: 1. Denial, 2. Carping, 3. Thwarting....

ADDED: Here's a chart showing all those Democratic Senators who must run in 2018. I grabbed that at Wikipedia's "United States Senate elections, 2018":

 

You can see that the right-hand column needs to be updated to show the actual results of the 2016 election. There are 12 seats held by Democrats, and the chart anticipates that all 12 will go Democratic in the 2016 election, but in real life, 10 of those 12 went for Trump. One of the 2 seats occupied by Republicans did go for Clinton in 2016 (Nevada). Still, that's a harsh picture for the Democrats in the Senate.

I'm especially interested in the Wisconsin race. Tammy Baldwin was elected in 2012, when Obama was on the ticket. Obama got 52.83% here, and Baldwin got 51.4%. Here's a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article about Republicans gearing up to challenge Baldwin. One of them is Eric Hovde, who came very close to being the GOP nominee in 2012, but got edged out by the former governor, Tommy Thompson, who went on to run a terrible, lackluster campaign. Another is Congressman Sean Duffy, who was an early supporter of Trump's and who shares Trump's background in the reality-TV business. Duffy was on "The Real World" in the 1997 season (Boston) and he's married to Rachel Campos-Duffy, who was on "The Real World" in 1994 (the best-ever season, San Francisco). Those 2 have 8 children together.

__________________________

* There are 46 Democratic Senators, plus 2 Democrats who are in the Democratic caucus. You see the name of one of them on the chart above, Angus King. The other one is the one who challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination when everybody actually in her party obeyed orders and stood down. 

Keep your religion institutionalized!

"Certainly the first amendment says that in institutions of faith that there is absolute power to, you know, to observe deeply held religious beliefs. I don’t think it extends far beyond that. We’ve seen the set of arguments play out in issues such as access to contraception. Should it be the individual pharmacist whose religious beliefs guides whether a prescription is filled, or in this context, they’re talking about expanding this far beyond our churches and synagogues to businesses and individuals across this country. I think there are clear limits that have been set in other contexts and we ought to abide by those in this new context across America."

Said Tammy Baldwin, the U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, responding to a question about the consequences of the same-sex marriage case.

"Fired staffer accuses Tammy Baldwin's office of coverup in VA scandal."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

In a 16-page complaint, Baylor is asking the U.S. Senate Ethics Select Committee to investigate the first-term senator "for making false statements and representations" to cover up the actions by her chief of staff, Bill Murat, and "to protect her political career."

"Had Murat, as the chief of staff, allowed me and other individuals to properly perform our roles, the issues surrounding the Tomah VA Medical Center would have been identified and addressed long ago," Baylor said in the complaint drafted by a Republican law firm out of Kansas City. "By attempting to place to place the blame at my feet, Senator Baldwin has concealed the truth, made false statements, and mischaracterized my service as deputy state director."

"A former top staffer to U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has rejected a proposed severance deal that would have required her to remain silent regarding what she knew..."

"... about the problems at the troubled Tomah VA Medical Center. Now Marquette Baylor, ex-deputy state director for Baldwin and chief of her Milwaukee office, has hired a team of attorneys to explore litigation for wrongful termination or sexual discrimination. A source said Baylor believes she was one of the highest ranking heterosexuals on Baldwin's staff. Baldwin is the first openly gay member of the U.S. Senate."

Writes Daniel Bice.

ADDED: Based on my Google search just now, this story is the first time the internet has heard the phrase "highest ranking heterosexuals."