Wisconsin Voters Rebuff Teachers Unions In Supreme Ct. Race

Wisconsin voters rebuffed an attempt by labor unions to unseat conservative State Supreme Court Justice, David Prosser by a 7,500 vote margin out of 1.5 million ballots cast.

The vote had been considered too close to call as of Wednesday, but release of 11,000 votes from heavily Republican Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee, Thursday gave Prosser the win.

The vote totals for the town had been tallied on election night but inadvertantly omitted from totals reported by the AP.

Clinging to what she believed to be a 204 vote lead on Wednesday, the Big-Labor candidate, JoAnne Kloppenburg declared victory at the time.

Kloppenburg has begun raising money for a recount but says she is uncertain as to whether she will demand one.

The race was considered a critical showdown between supporters of Governor Scott Walker and the powerful Wisconsin teachers unions over the State legislature's recent vote to strip the government worker unions of their collective bargaining privileges.

Big labor spent heavily for Kloppenburg's bid and imported campaign operatives from throughout the Midwest,

Big-labor in Wisconsin has also targeted 14 of the State Senators who backed Walker's reforms, for recall in an election to be held later this year. But voters supported Walker's candidate for Supreme Court in the State Senate districts of 13 of them, likely signalling the futility of labor's recall effort, according to WTMJ-AM radio.