The Prosser-Kloppenberg race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court has been an incredible ride. What looked like a inevitable "no contest" earlier this year became a political heavyweight slugfest, each side landing haymakers right up to the close of the polls on election day.
Even while I was at Prosser's election night party, the lead changed no less than four times, ultimately ending in a call – then a retraction of that call by the AP, only to be called – and retracted AGAIN by the APWednesday morning. Wow...drama!
Then, with an unbelievably narrow lead (less than 0.02% by my math), challenger JoAnne Kloppenberg claimed victory over the incumbent Justice Prosser in a Wednesday press conference. Wow … hubris!
But the still-small voice inside the Wisconsin conservative movement hadn't yet been heard.
With the troops rallied and the armor on, Prosser's team went back into battle Thursday morning for the official canvass of votes and found the unbelievable: roughly 14,000 votes from the City of Brookfield that hadn't been included in the AP projections Tuesday or Wednesday.
Prosser's lead was large enough in Brookfield alone to edge him near an "automatic recall-proof" margin overall, and a likely re-election to the state's highest court. Now, as I write this, the numbers are still coming in and things could still change, but it looks like our pop-up to right field was caught by the wind and carried out of the park with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Wow … relief!
Kloppen … Who?
So how does a first-time SCOW candidate go from "laughable" to "odds-on favorite" in the span of six weeks like JoAnne Kloppenberg did? Unfortunately, it's all too simple. We (conservatives) took our eyes off the ball. We assumed that the largest swing from "blue" to "red" in the nation, including statewide wins in the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and U.S. Senate races, would give us a mandate that would override the need to entrepreneurially market our ideas, continually win public support for legislation that improves our state, and – most importantly – work hard … I mean REALLY hard … to win.
The Hard Work Is Only Beginning.
As any champion of anything will tell you, it's harder to remain on top than it is to get there in the first place. Why? Because your challengers always double down their effort to dethrone you when you have something they want, and everyone in politics wants power. With power, of course, also comes responsibility, and were it not for recklessness and irresponsibility of Washington Liberals since 2006, we may not have seen the electoral good fortune we did here last November.
So how do we avoid another power shift back to the left in subsequent elections? It's not easy, but the principles are as old as leadership itself. In order to lead others, you must first serve others.
Here's how:
Give the people what they want. This does NOT mean capitulating to demonstrators or falsely assuming the loudest voices speak for everyone. It means earnestly searching for the ideas and actions that people want (not just what you think is correct based on election results), and fighting tirelessly for them, no matter the ramifications. Ultimately, this is still a Republic where the will of the people calls the shots; we need to make sure our governing actions accurately reflect that will.
Make the people feel good about what they're getting. This is often the most difficult to accomplish because so much of what the people want requires sacrifice or concessions on behalf of others. Success in this area ONLY comes through preparation and exhaustive marketing of ideas before they're implemented through law.
Failure to do so results in misunderstanding … and when misunderstanding prevails, our political opposition gains a foothold to define the issue the way THEY want it seen. That's bad for us.
These fundamentals, when executed properly, are powerful. They will overcome massive money, media bias, and professional political organizers like unions. But they don't come easy, and I cannot stress enough that the success of the conservative movement in Wisconsin relies on the ability to outwork liberals and progressives on these two principles.
The Final Word
The Walker election taught us that conservative ideas will win in Wisconsin. Between this victory and the impending Prosser re-election, however, we learned how catastrophic the lack of cohesive, singularly-focused conservative leadership can be in maintaining momentum. Somewhere in the mix of fighting for what we know is right and rebuking the [literal] siege of our capitol building, we lost sight of the fundamentals … and nearly lost a critical election.
So, for those lawmakers, candidates and the conservatives supporting them who think that the 2010 election cycle and Justice Prosser's likely victory have prewritten the successful results for the upcoming recalls and future elections, I offer the same response I had for Kloppenberg supporters on election night: "Not so fast, my friend."
We CAN keep this movement alive, but ONLY if we are sound in the fundamentals.
Dave Westlake, President
GOP Victory Print
www.GOPVictoryPrint.com