Wisconsin’s spring primary in Whitewater saw three candidates vie for two spots on the April ballot for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Statewide in preliminary numbers, conservative Michael Screnock had a plurality, followed by liberals Rebecca Dallet and Tim Burns. (It’s Screnock v. Dallet in April.)
Look, however, at how different the statewide, Jefferson County & Walworth County, and City of Whitewater results are:
Statewide:
Michael Screnock 46%
Rebecca Dallet 36%
Tim Burns 18%
For Walworth County overall, Screnock took 58.1% of the vote, and for Jefferson County overall, he took 54.9% of the vote.
Now look at the City of Whitewater, all wards:
Dallet 47.9%
Screnock 30.9%
Burns 20.3%
In the City of Whitewater, even in a low-key race, the two liberal candidates easily took about 58% of the vote, while in the full rural counties of which Whitewater is a part, Screnock took a similar majority.
There’s your City of Whitewater political story: Whitewater votes farther left than either the counties of which she is a part or the state. Conservatives in the city proper are a political minority (and have been for a while); conservatives in the school district towns nearby, however, are a political majority (and are likely to say as such for a long while).
Politically and culturally, the city is likely to look less and less like nearby towns, and is less and less likely to share the same politics as smaller towns immediately beyond the city limits. It’s a slow process, but one that will prove inexorable nonetheless.
Liberals in the city might hope these changes will be faster, but they will move at their own pace; conservatives in the city might wish to forestall these changes, but they come nonetheless.