Badger State Update- Dewey Kloppenburg Defeats Truman Prosser; Dane County Woman Charged in Sending Death Threats to State Lawmakers

In what is likely the most hotly contested Wisconsin judicial election this month, the contest between incubment David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg gained a degree of national attention.

Both conservatives and labor activists viewed the Wisconsin Supreme Court election as a potential referrendum on Gov Scott Walker's contested budget bill that limited collective bargaining for state employees that was passed last month.

The unions threw their support behind Kloppenburg, largely believing that she would rule in their favor should Walker's bill find itself before the Supreme Court. The night after Tuesday's elections, Assistant Attorney General Kloppenburg had declared victory as she maintained a slim 204 vote lead over Prosser.

Heading into Thursday morning, Prosser's best chance at victory seemed to be from an automatic recount that would be automatically triggered by such a close margin.

However, by Thursday afternoon Waukesha county clerk Kathy Nickolaus held a press conference in which she announced that the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield had erroniously been omitted from the tally due to 'human error'.

"This is not a case of extra votes or extra ballots being found," Nickolaus said. "This is human error, which I apologize for." Nickolaus said the most significant error occurred when she entered totals from the city of Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee, but they were not saved.

This mistake was discovered during an open meeting of the county canvass board in which the co-chair of the Waukesha County Democrat Party was in attendance and verified Nickolaus' version of events.

The error would mean that Prosser could stand to gain nearly 7600 votes after trailing by just over 200, which would push the margin beyond the threshold for an automatic recount.

ELSEWHERE- A 26 year old Cross Plains, WI woman has been charged with sending threatening e-mails to state officials.

Windell before e-mailing death threats

26 year old Katherine R. Windels, 26, was named in a criminal complaint after allegedly sending death threats to State Senator Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) on March 9 before sending similar messages to 15 other Republican lawmakers that same evening. The e-mails read in part:

Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your families will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain to them that this is because we get rid of you and your families and then it will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.

Windels after e-mailing death threats

Windels was charged with two felony counts of sending out a bomb scare and computer message threatening bodily harm or injury. Her trial is slated to begin in late April. If convicted, she could face a maximum of 3 ½ years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Some social networking profiles thought to belong to Windels lists her as having an associates degree in early childhood education and work experience in Wexford Head Start and the Little Red Caboose.

[hat tip: Gateway Pundit; Althouse]