Charlie Sykes: Sykes Writes

THE TALK RADIO EFFECT

By Charlie Sykes

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Some love from Paddy Mac for what he calls "one big 50,000 watt voice."

Others, doubtless, will comment on the geography of Walker-vs.-Neumann, especially the way Scott Walker actually lost to Mark Neumann in western Wisconsin and the Appleton-Green Bay area.

To me, the pattern suggests the importance of something my profession and progressives routinely deride.

The reason Walker won so big -- roughly 3-to-2, statewide -- was he won big in the places that have lots of people.

Neumann’s biggest margins in sizeable counties were in La Crosse, Eau Claire, Brown, Outagamie and Wood counties (the latter three are Green Bay, Appleton and Wisconsin Rapids). In those counties, with Walker getting only around 40% of the vote, Neumann piled up a vote advantage of about 9,900 votes.

Walker, meanwhile, tied Neumann in Winnebago County (Oshkosh), and in the Madison area, and he mopped the floor with him in southeastern Wisconsin. In Racine County alone, by winning two-thirds of the vote, Walker got enough votes to negate Neumann’s big wins -- then Walker went on to get three-fourths of the votes in Waukesha and Milwaukee counties. His advantage over Neumann in Milwaukee County alone, 37,000 votes, exceeded every vote Neumann got in his La Crosse, Eau Claire, Appleton, Green Bay and Wisconsin Rapids. In Ozaukee County, Neumann was reduced to fringe candidate status with 19%.

Say that Walker didn’t do well in the west because of anti-Milwaukee bias, but the fact is that a clear-eyed suspicion of Milwaukee burns fiercely in suburban counties, too, animated by familiarity. Say that southeasterners liked Walker for knowing him, but notice that Walker beat Neumann 2-to-1 in Kenosha, Racine and Walworth counties, which twice sent Neumann to Congress.

The real difference between La Crosse, Eau Claire, Green Bay and Appleton on the one hand and the places around Milwaukee is explained, rather, by the fact that an AM signal travels only so far. The major talk-radio players in Milwaukee -- Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and Jay Weber -- all covered the contest exhaustively. I think they did so fairly: Notably, both Walker and Neumann got on the air repeatedly with these hosts and were allowed to explain their views. The hosts, of course, formed opinions and expressed them, but given that both candidates were conservatives, the commentary was heavy on analysis and light on excoriation. This analysis and opinion, it seems, made a huge difference in turnout and result.

And that result was this: If a county was within the sound of Milwaukee talk radio’s voice, it voted Walker overwhelmingly. This is the power of ideas, well expressed.