“Republican Gov. Scott Walker hasn’t issued a pardon or set up the next version of the state’s Pardon Advisory Board, refusing to exercise one of his office’s most expansive powers to restore felons’ former rights.

(more…)

“Some federal spending in Wisconsin is already falling off a fiscal cliff, with big defense contractors and their suppliers standing to lose billions of dollars in federal contracts in large part because the U.S. military is winding down the war in Afghanistan,” via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Image: Wisconsin 2012 Presidential results by county via Huffington Post

Minnesota’s purple neighbor, Wisconsin, hasn’t had a break from campaigning in a mighty long time. A union-led attempted recall of Republican Gov. Scott Walker failed earlier this year, but as Tuesday’s results suggest, it isn’t because the state has become more conservative. More Wisconsin voters, 70%, went to the polls Tuesday than they did in 2008.

President: Obama by six points

U.S. Senate: Tammy Baldwin (D) elected as first openly gay member of the Senate

U.S. House: All seven incumbents, including GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan, safely re-elected. Republicans hold five of the eight House seats, Democrats hold the other three. Mark Pocan (D) easily won the open seat Baldwin vacated in the Madison-area.

State legislature: GOP takes new majority in the Senate, expands margin in the Assembly. Democrats may make up lost ground in recounts.

“President Obama won the state by nearly six percentage points, thanks, at least in part, to support from labor unions and voters who approved of the auto industry bailout. A majority of voters in exit polls also blamed President George W. Bush, not Mr. Obama, for the economy’s problems. (more…)

“Keith Follis had hoped to run his trapline for at least a few days during Wisconsin’s wolf season. But his season ended just one day after he started trapping.

“Follis, 51, of Brule, made nine trapping sets for wolves Friday morning, four days after Wisconsin’s first wolf hunting and trapping season opened on Oct. 15. On Saturday morning, he found a wolf in the third set he had placed, along a logging road south of Brule.

“‘The wolf wound up weighing 62 pounds,’ Follis said. ‘But in the brush, it looked like 100 pounds. They’re a big animal. They’re real tall.’”

reports the Duluth News Tribune.

After catching a few hours of sleep, the #Packers game is still just as painful. #Returntherealrefs

— Governor Walker (@GovWalker) September 25, 2012

“If there’s one thing that can unite political foes in Wisconsin, it just may be the Green Bay Packers.

“Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who made a national name for himself by going after public employee unions last year, posted a message on Twitter calling for the return of the NFL’s locked-out unionized officials after a disputed call led to a Seattle Seahawks 14-12 victory over the Packers on Monday night,” reports the AP via ABC News.

“In a major turnabout, Democrat Tammy Baldwin surged ahead in a Marquette University Law School poll Wednesday in the race for U.S. Senate, taking a 9-point lead over Republican Tommy G. Thompson.”

via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.