Typical Politico Spin: 'Money Shouts' Is Lesson of Wisconsin Recall

June 6th, 2012 12:35 PM

Politico's Glenn Thrush insists that there's "Only one takeaway from Wisconsin: Money shouts." "Cash doesn't talk in 2012, it shouts, and Wisconsin was a sonic boom that's breaking glass in Chicago," Thrush groused, adding that "Conservative groups outspent unions and progs in Wisconsin by an estimated SEVEN-TO-ONE."

Although it's a predictable left-leaning take on yesterday's results, it's incredibly insulting to Badger State voters, not to mention completely illogical in light of exit polling data.


Scott Walker yesterday garnered some 53.2 percent of vote yesterday to his Democratic opponent's 46.3 percent, a difference of 6.9 percentage points. Walker's 53.2 percent share of the votes is 0.9 percentage points better than his 52.3 percent showing in 2010. In other words, Walker did marginally better in the recall than he did in the regular election.

Money may shout, but shouting doesn't move people to polls and certainly didn't produce a dramatically different result for Walker than his initial victory two years prior. To see that, Thrush needs only look at exit polling data about union voters and their choices for governor.

The 2012 recall electorate was actually slightly more disposed to be favorable to Barrett, the Democratic challenger, because 33 percent of the voters were union members, compared to only 26 percent of voters in the 2010 gubernatorial race. In both elections, however Walker garnered 37 percent of those union voters.

So after more than a year of Big Union propaganda being "shouted" at union members in the Badger State, union voters failed to decisively move into the Barrett column. Big Union money and union boss peer pressure failed to make that voting bloc a powerhouse for Barrett.

By contrast, non-union voters voted for Walker by 60 percent to Barrett's 40, up from the 56-43 split in 2010. It's a healthy bump in non-union voter support, but hardly what you'd expect from all the "shouting" of Super PAC cash that liberal journalists see as the bogeyman.