34 Comments
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Dan Shafer's avatar

UPDATE: David Crowley is back in the race for governor, per source close to the campaign. Event will happen tomorrow at 11 a.m.

Ashley Camp's avatar

crowley re-entering the race and being instantly endorsed by evers feels deeply manipulative by the wisdems and is clearly not what the voters want

Greg P.'s avatar

The voters will have their say as to what they want. It’s entirely within their power to nominate even Missy Hughes or Sara Rodriguez over Tony Evers’ objections. He’s not a cult leader; he’s just a guy. That said, if he thinks David Crowley would be a better governor than either of his lieutenant governors, his DOA secretary, or his WEDC director, his opinion is entitled to quite a bit of consideration.

MamaBi's avatar

Yes, this is s true. I am curious if a large contribution will come from the DNC for Crowley.

Greg P.'s avatar

lol the DNC has less money than Sara Rodriguez and for roughly the same reason.

MamaBi's avatar

So what number is that —less than 34,000 and greater than -152000?

Brodacious's avatar

it is. but California shows there really are just like 30-40% of liberal voters out there who are cattle waiting to be told who the next dem elite pick is. We have been stuck like this in Wisconsin in previous cycles with Barett in 2010/12 and Burke in 2014.

MamaBi's avatar

So you would think we would not fall for it again. I don’t know why they just don’t let Brennan and Roys duke it out for the moderate lane. If Crowley goes back in and loses badly, then the Dems continue to look like they are out of touch. Plus they just tick a lot of people off.

Brodacious's avatar

I think the biggest threat is if they manage to push Barnes out. Theyre already trying to seed rumors he has some scandal with young women. If they can push Barnes out, thats when it becomes possible they beat Hong

MamaBi's avatar

I am far more cynical. Milwaukee is the one city that can really counteract the Madison vote. So pit Crowley againsr Hong to attract Milwaukee voters and push up Crowley’s percentages. This may also work to your point that they are trying to take out Barnes.

Greg P.'s avatar

His scandals with young women date back to his time in the Assembly. The only thing new about them is that people are starting to go on the record.

MamaBi's avatar

Well it’s official. He is back in.

Erin's avatar

Crowley coming back seems like such a bad idea. It will just make democrats look like they’re more interested in fighting over the 10% difference in their platforms than in the 90% difference with Tiffany. Just get behind Hong now. She’s proven she has the momentum.

Madeline's avatar

This is an insane idea. Kelda Roys is the obvious choice.

MamaBi's avatar

I don’t prefer her, but I agree she would seem to be the choice. Why don’t Dems like her?

Megan's avatar

Because she comes across as inauthentic

Greg P.'s avatar

This is my hypothesis: “Left” and “liberal” are usually used interchangeably when talking about politics, but there’s a sense in which they have different meanings. Kelda is too liberal for the moderates but not leftist enough for leftists, and the constituency for “liberal but not leftist” is too small to win a primary.

Basically, she’s in the lane Harris, Gillibrand, Booker, Castro, Buttigieg, and Warren were fighting over in the the 2020 primary. The voters who want to compromise for electability purposes prefer moderates and voters who don’t care about electability at all want and out and out leftist.

Madeline's avatar

The governor stepping in to endorse a failed candidate who dropped out is something that might make sense in a true emergency, like if the only candidates were Kirk Bangstadt / Sara Rodriguez / a rapist. In this situation it is absurd.

Greg P.'s avatar

So don’t vote for him ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Madeline's avatar

They do. She has over 100 endorsements from elected Dems from across the state and keeps getting more.

MamaBi's avatar

I was referring to the elites who want to put in Crowley

Madeline's avatar

Yeah I have no idea. Seems like Evers wants to make himself a king.

MamaBi's avatar

We are close to snatching defeat again. I could be convinced to vote for Roys.

Brodacious's avatar

Fellow HongHeads need to LOCK TF IN. The dem elite and media are about to resurrect David Crowley's corpse of a campaign and try to make him the Xavier Beccerra of Wisconsin this cycle. Taking a 5th place loser and running a full media and money blitz to astroturf 30%+ in a primary.

MamaBi's avatar

I am voting Hong.

Kevin Alexander's avatar

I know I sound like I have my tinfoil hat on too tight, but any talk of Crowley jumping back in strikes me as a coordinated effort to take Hong out.

Greg P.'s avatar

Of course it is. Why would you treat it like a conspiracy though? No one who can’t win a two person race deserves to; anyone who can does.

That said, we should have ranked choice voting for primaries so all this coordination can happen out in the open.

Jake formerly of the LP's avatar

The way this primary is playing out is the perfect example of why we need RCV, especially for

Primaries. So we don't end up with a candidate a lot of the party's voters don't want at all.

Kevin Alexander's avatar

Definitely! Would love to have ranked choice voting.

MamaBi's avatar

That is the only reason.

Jake formerly of the LP's avatar

How does the math add up here for Crowley? Can someone explain how this would stop Hong from getting the most votes (assuming that's the goal) when you've thrown another guy into here that would split the other 60% of votes even more?

As mentioned above, why not let Roys and Brennan fight it out for the non-Hong, non-Barnes vote through the debate, and then get behind the one that can win the primary and have the other drop out?

Evers doesn't have the pull with enough voters to have an endorsement make a difference, and it would tick off a number of voters who want top Dems to STAY OUT OF THIS.

I need some polls and guidance. Fast

Evan Newman's avatar

I think this will only work out well for Crowley if it plays out like the Dem presidential primary in 2020, where almost everyone drops out and endorses him over the weekend, setting up Crowley vs. Hong 1:1; à la Biden vs. Bernie.

MamaBi's avatar

The moderate dems collectively were behind the progressives in fundraising and donors. Where are they going to create the buzz needed to win?