All the fake Democrats went down in flames in Wisconsin. And the real Democrat cruised to a easy victory in the CA-36th.

Yesterday we looked at the potential responses from Democrats in Wisconsin to the dirty trick from Republicans, who plan to run “spoiler” candidates in the recall elections to force primaries and move the general recall elections out to August. Democrats had a couple options, ranging from taking the high road to retaliating with spoiler candidates of their own. The final decision reflected mostly a high road approach.

By now, it’s pretty clear that Wisconsin Republicans will run multiple “spoiler” candidates in recall elections set for July 12. Because of the peculiar rules of the recall, these spoiler candidates, basically Republican operatives, would run as Democrats, creating a Democratic primary election on July 12 against the official Democratic challenger. This moves back the general elections against six state Senate Republicans to August 9.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin’s effort to place “spoiler” candidates on the ballot to force Democratic primaries in the recall elections started with an off-hand comment at a Lacrosse County Republican event. It has quickly become the official policy of the state party. Top leaders now defend the practices, saying there’s nothing cynical about it, nothing wrong with it, and in fact that the recalls themselves are the cynical policy.