Anonymous Republican sources tell the National Review that polling in on the April 5th Wisconsin Supreme Court election between JoAnne Kloppenburg and incumbent David Prosser is "near even."
Two sources with knowledge of internal GOP polling tell us that Prosser and Kloppenburg are near even, a bad sign for the incumbent. “She has driven his negatives up,” one source says.
The sources are anonymous, the specific numbers are not released, and the author clearly has an agenda, so take this with a big helping of salt. Even so, it's a decent indication that the Wisconsin Supreme Court campaign will not be a cakewalk for former Republican state Assembly Leader David Prosser. That's pretty surprising, since Republicans swept the state just four month ago and since this is likely to be a very low turnout election.
The newfound energy in Wisconsin has made Prosser vulnerable. A group called The Greater Wisconsin Committee is hurting Prosser's chances, too. From the same National Review article:
The Greater Wisconsin Committee, a leftist organizing group with deep union ties, has funneled $3 million into anti-Prosser advertising, taking relentlessly to the airwaves. “They are the Left’s biggest political player in the state,” says Brett Healy, the president of the MacIver Institute, a Wisconsin-based think tank. “They run the ads that no one else wants to run.
Indeed. The GWC is airing ads that tie Prosser to the budget bill. “Prosser equals Walker” is the usual theme.
As Prosser himself has said, there's a about a 100% chance that the budget repair bill will end up before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. With conservatives currently holding a 4-3 advantage on the court, the outcome on April 5th may well determine the fate of the budget repair bill, at least in the short-term.
