From the Blogosphere: Highlights from Wisconsin's Top Political Bloggers

Here's a look at what some of Wisconsin's top political bloggers have been writing about in the last week.

Charlie Sykes, Sykes Writes
On the results of the Aug. 9 state Senate recall election

"We can endlessly debate the fairness and wisdom of Wisconsin's recall law. But here are some fascinating numbers: the two senators who lost Tuesday, received substantially more votes when they were first elected to a four-year term than their opponents received in the recall.

"In other words, the recall allowed a smaller group of voters to negate the choice a much larger number of voters who cast ballots in a general election. In the case of Dan Kapanke, for example, 33,192 Tuesday votes were able to negate the votes of 45,154 voters who elected Kapanke to his current term."

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State Rep. Brett Hulsey, Blogging Blue
On a proposal to change the state Constitution to make it more difficult to recall legislators

"GOP legislators have introduced a constitutional change to revoke the citizens’ right to fire their elected representatives at will through the recall process.

"Taking away citizens rights is nothing new for Republicans in the Legislature...From eliminating workers' rights, stopping citizens from entering the Capitol while the Legislature was debating their foul legislation, working to raise taxes on seniors and low-wage earners, defunding women’s health programs, and the entire litany of attacks on the Wisconsin way of life contained within the state budget, the GOP is very good at taking away from Wisconsin citizens.

"Now, they want to make it harder for Wisconsinites to take their jobs away from them. Removing the statewide recall process from the constitution is a blatant attempt to strip a vital citizen check on governmental authority."

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James Wigderson, Widgerson Library & Pub
On vote-tampering allegations made by Democrats in the 8th Senate District race

"As you may recall (no pun intended) both the Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate and Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski accused Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus of tampering with Tuesday night’s election results. Tate backed away from the remarks later by saying they were made in the 'heat of the moment,' but neither he or Zielinski have apologized to Nickolaus.

"I’ve been critical of Nickolaus but it’s pretty outrageous for the leadership of a political party to accuse a county clerk, even one with Nickolaus’ track record, of tampering with an election without any proof. That’s one of the most serious charges someone can make regarding an election, and Zielinski and Tate should be forced to apologize."