Wisconsin’s Walker, Barrett each won some counties they lost in ’10

By

In Tuesday’s recall race, Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic challenger Tom Barrett for the most part carried the counties they won in the 2010 match up. But, there are some counties that flipped their votes.

In 2010, voters in Eau Claire, Trempealeau, Crawford and Green Counties leaned towards Barrett. This year, they went for Walker.

Walker won the recall race by a couple hundred votes in those counties. But in Trempealeau County, Republicans came out in force, racking up 57% of the vote.

Stay informed on the latest news

Sign up for WPR’s email newsletter.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Trempealeau County Republican Party Chair Dave Anderson says membership has really been growing over the last year. He says volunteers worked hard at phone banks, handing out yard signs, and other get out the vote efforts, “Of course we did have two parades prior to the election and we were out in force at those parades.”

Anderson also says they were able to focus their efforts on the recall race, “We didn’t have a Senate recall or nothing in our county, so it was just the governor and lieutenant governor race we had to concentrate on.”

Trempealeau’s neighbor to the south, La Crosse County, had the opposite outcome.

In 2010, Walker narrowly won La Crosse. This year, Barrett brought in almost 52% of the votes.

La Crosse County Democratic Party Chair Vicki Burke says their “get out the vote” efforts were stronger than Republicans. She says volunteers were energized, “We were able to knock on every door we needed to and to make every phone call we needed to reach our voters.”

Barrett also carried Kenosha and Columbia Counties, where most voters had supported Walker in 2010.