No need to read tea leaves after recent election

What are we to make of the recent results of a special state senate election in Wisconsin? Probably not much. But that doesn’t stop all the analysts from reading the tea leaves. On Tuesday Democrat Patty Schactner won a special election to replace Republican Shelia Harsdorf. This particular Senate district has been solidly republican for years. President Trump won St. Croix County by 17 points in the recent election. That has people on both sides of the aisle trying to make sense of what happened. Governor Walker calls the election of a democrat in a traditional republican district to be a wake-up call. While some democratic leaders say this victory is proof that republicans will be in trouble in the next general election. Some suggest this democratic victory is proof voters are rejecting the policies of President Trump, or that this race was a referendum on Foxconn, so it hurts Governor Walker. Hogwash. This was one race, in one little corner of Wisconsin. It is far to early to suggest the results of this race suggest a tidal wave of blue is overtaking the state and the nation. Maybe Schactner ran a better campaign. Maybe they didn’t like her opponent. We don’t know. But we also don’t know that one race in one Wisconsin Senate district means anything other than voters there chose one candidate over another.