Vinehout: ‘Democrats Need A New Game Plan’

A Democratic state senator says her party needs to do some soul searching after suffering losses on election night.

Democrat Kathleen Vinehout barely kept her state Senate seat on Tuesday, beating a relatively unknown Republican challenger by only four percentage points. She said that it was one of many races in areas friendly to Democrats that were much closer than the party expected.

“The Republicans were remarkably effective at turning out their voters,” she said. “It reminds me of what happened in the recall election when about 94 percent of the eligible Republicans turned out and only about 72 percent of the eligible Democrats turned out.”

Democrats were hoping to regain control of the state Senate, but instead lost seats to Republicans a 19 to 14 majority. Vinehout said her party didn’t do enough to motivate Democrats who rarely vote in non-presidential elections.

“When you started to hear the story of Democrats saying, ‘We’ve got to turn out, we’ve got to turn out,’ it was three weeks before Election Day,” she said. “You have to have a reason for that person to be engaged long before you do the get-out-the-vote effort. And so, I think Democrats need a new game plan.”

Vinehout said that after such bad losses, state Democratic leadership needs to regroup.

“There’s going to have to be some soul searching on what was done by the senate Democrats, what was not done, what could be done differently.”

In a statement released last night Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Mike Tate said the fight for progressive values will continue as they begin planning for victory in 2016.