I’ll offer a few remarks on the 43rd Wisconsin Assembly race, a contest in which Evan Wynn defeated incumbent Kim Hixson. At the bottom of the post, I’ve listed results of prior races, from the Wisconsin Blue Book. (The major candidates’ percentages don’t always add to 100 because of write-ins, etc.) The results of last night’s race are provisional, from the website of the Wisconsin Board of Elections. The incumbents candidate has an asterisk next to his or her name.
I have no connection to either candidate in the 2010 campaign, but know both candidates are solid, dedicated citizens. One wishes the best to both, for our small city, whether in the Assembly or at the university.
One sees first that these races were all close, with the exception of the 2004 contest. There’s only one double-digit win among the lot of them, when Towns defeated McIntyre in ’04. Assuming the district’s boundaries stay the same, future contests are likely to be close, also. (This assembly district looks nothing like nearby 31st district that Rep. Steve Nass holds comfortably.) I recall, perhaps imperfectly, reading that former representative Debi Towns once said that the district would be hard for a Republican to hold. I think she was right, but only in part: it may prove hard for anyone to hold.
Second, the race veered unexpectedly (to me, anyway) into a discussion of kinds of public service. That’s not a bad topic, but I wonder if the race would have been closer if that had not become a topic. We’ll never know, but it seems possible. A more conventional list of topics — without a discussion that involved careers of the two candidates — might have produced a race different in margin, if not result.
Third, the district’s not merely changed parties, but so has the governor’s mansion, the state assembly, and the state senate. I’m neither a Republican nor a Democrat, so my party won none of these bodies last night. Having won so much, individual state representatives and senators will be part of a much bigger story, that will decide the fates of their future candidacies. Wynn was sensible to commit only to a single term, leaving the rest to a future decision — there’s no way to know how this will turn out for the new majority.
Fourth, I do know this: some new Republican officeholders will take office committed to their ideas, only the meet old incumbents and party officials who are old-style pols in every way. There will be all kinds of tempting suggestions to ‘see how the game is played’ or to ‘be pratical,’ etc. These temptations, delivered sotto voce, will come from Big Government Republicans who just want to do what they did the last time they were in power.
Fifth, a word about endorsements in this race. If a politician, with a website he holds out as a news site, is listed as a supporter of one of the candidates on that candidate’s website, then he should make that clear when he writes about the candidate on the news site.
Simply listing the endorsements of others (when the number favor his choice by 3-1) isn’t neutrality, and isn’t proper disclosure. It operates as a quasi-campaign ad.
Disclosure should come prominently on the website of the politician/news publisher.
Here are those results —
State Assembly 43rd District
2010
Kim Hixson* 9,448 47.5%
Evan Wynn 10,449 52.5%
2008
Kim Hixson* 15,303 51.2%
Debi Towns 14,581 48.8%
2006
Kim Hixson 10,330 50.02%
Debi Towns* 10,292 49.83%
2004
Matt McIntyre* 12,796 44.4%
Debi Towns 15,960 55.4%