April 6, 2011

Madison Versus Wisconsin

Filed under: Budget — Christian Schneider @ 11:50 pm

Some have argued Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election reflected a statewide rebuke of Governor Scott Walker’s attempts to rein in public sector union power.  Yet it is no coincidence Justice David Prosser lost by 85,000 votes in Dane County, which houses the most government employees in Wisconsin.

UPDATE: I discuss this in my column today at the National Review Online, which cites the chart below.

Here’s a chart demonstrating what percentage of each Wisconsin county’s workforce is comprised of government employees.  As can be seen, Dane County has substantially more government employees than even Milwaukee County, which has twice the population.

TOTAL POPULATION WORKFORCE GOV’T EMPLOYEES PERCENT GOV’T EMPLOYEES
UNITED STATES 307,006,550 180,943,800 24,257,000 13.4%
WISCONSIN 5,654,774 3,595,084 425,772 11.8%
Menominee, WI 4,513 2,328 2,058 88.4%
Forest, WI 9,605 5,302 1,814 34.2%
Vilas, WI 21,496 10,649 2,345 22.0%
Pierce, WI 40,081 17,410 3,734 21.4%
Dane, WI 491,357 390,225 79,343 20.3%
Jackson, WI 19,886 12,656 2,476 19.6%
Florence, WI 4,554 1,608 303 18.8%
Sawyer, WI 16,939 11,275 2,109 18.7%
Dunn, WI 42,968 23,924 4,383 18.3%
Bayfield, WI 14,789 7,598 1,388 18.3%
Ashland, WI 16,181 11,924 2,175 18.2%
Grant, WI 48,965 28,489 5,088 17.9%
Washburn, WI 16,666 7,418 1,323 17.8%
Monroe, WI 43,760 27,047 4,699 17.4%
Pepin, WI 7,293 3,531 565 16.0%
Lafayette, WI 15,737 7,265 1,138 15.7%
Douglas, WI 44,274 21,535 3,346 15.5%
Burnett, WI 15,884 8,872 1,371 15.5%
Shawano, WI 41,166 20,581 3,135 15.2%
Barron, WI 45,591 31,182 4,612 14.8%
Waupaca, WI 51,665 27,163 3,961 14.6%
Marquette, WI 14,727 6,017 875 14.5%
Juneau, WI 26,451 12,375 1,771 14.3%
Rusk, WI 14,367 8,474 1,208 14.3%
Waushara, WI 24,606 9,141 1,265 13.8%
Vernon, WI 29,324 14,391 1,909 13.3%
Adams, WI 20,088 9,815 1,297 13.2%
Oconto, WI 37,149 14,616 1,926 13.2%
Kenosha, WI 165,382 76,395 9,996 13.1%
Walworth, WI 100,593 55,569 7,269 13.1%
Portage, WI 69,176 44,481 5,802 13.0%
Trempealeau, WI 27,754 17,512 2,215 12.6%
Columbia, WI 55,170 31,154 3,921 12.6%
Lincoln, WI 29,404 16,057 1,994 12.4%
Kewaunee, WI 20,315 10,251 1,256 12.3%
Price, WI 14,214 8,778 1,069 12.2%
Richland, WI 17,848 9,849 1,196 12.1%
Polk, WI 44,252 22,765 2,745 12.1%
Winnebago, WI 163,370 108,565 12,634 11.6%
La Crosse, WI 113,679 84,632 9,723 11.5%
Sauk, WI 58,922 47,249 5,414 11.5%
Eau Claire, WI 99,409 73,752 8,393 11.4%
Chippewa, WI 60,609 32,569 3,682 11.3%
Green Lake, WI 18,472 11,149 1,220 10.9%
Clark, WI 33,426 18,463 2,017 10.9%
Milwaukee, WI 959,521 610,671 66,287 10.9%
Rock, WI 160,155 86,118 9,226 10.7%
Racine, WI 200,601 94,691 10,006 10.6%
Langlade, WI 20,008 11,530 1,206 10.5%
Manitowoc, WI 80,583 44,698 4,668 10.4%
Dodge, WI 87,335 50,788 5,280 10.4%
Iron, WI 6,078 3,727 380 10.2%
St. Croix, WI 83,351 41,391 4,154 10.0%
Brown, WI 247,319 183,401 18,045 9.8%
Wood, WI 73,932 52,520 5,157 9.8%
Fond du Lac, WI 100,070 60,436 5,900 9.8%
Oneida, WI 35,930 26,907 2,594 9.6%
Green, WI 36,110 23,016 2,111 9.2%
Iowa, WI 23,498 16,516 1,511 9.1%
Marinette, WI 41,968 26,559 2,407 9.1%
Jefferson, WI 80,833 49,593 4,463 9.0%
Door, WI 27,815 20,570 1,843 9.0%
Buffalo, WI 13,425 10,416 932 8.9%
Taylor, WI 19,222 12,307 1,073 8.7%
Marathon, WI 131,612 93,389 8,105 8.7%
Washington, WI 130,681 68,484 5,793 8.5%
Outagamie, WI 177,155 128,324 10,799 8.4%
Crawford, WI 16,731 13,043 1,076 8.2%
Sheboygan, WI 114,560 78,888 6,415 8.1%
Ozaukee, WI 86,311 53,851 4,127 7.7%
Calumet, WI 44,739 22,886 1,590 6.9%
Waukesha, WI 383,154 288,363 18,461 6.4%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

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3 Comments

  1. I know you are a conservative organization and you are more interested in spinning results rather than looking at facts, but couldn’t you make the same argument that the race was the Milwaukee suburbs vs. the rest of the state. Prosser won overwhelmingly in wealthy, conservative Milwaukee suburbs, whereas Kloppenburg won the rest of the state by a large margin.

    Trying to make this a “Madison vs. Wisconsin” debate might be good for spinning a story but it does not accurately reflect the results.

    I’m proud to be from Crawford County where we are near the bottom of your list for percentage of public employees but supported Kloppenberg 60%-40%.

    Comment by Miguel Morga — April 7, 2011 @ 8:34 am

  2. So you get paid for pointing out that Republican candidates do better if you ignore the votes from parts of the state that don’t vote for Republicans?

    Comment by Define tautology for me — April 8, 2011 @ 4:12 pm

  3. This so-called “analysis” is so lame. One part of it (government workers who are being demonized vote against their demonizers….wow, big scoop) while the other part (it’s Madison vs. all the rest of the state) is demonstrably fraudulent. Dane and the Country Club rich white suburbs of Milwaukee (Ozaukee, Washington, and Waukesha) are nearly perfect political mirror opposites in terms of vote totals and margin, so whatever you say about Dane is equally and perfectly true of your sprawltopia in the opposite direction. It’s THE REST OF WISCONSIN against the rich people’s suburbs. Take out Dane and the Milwaukee suburbs and Kloppenburg wins by 761 votes. Take out just the suburbs and she trounces. Nearly half the county across the state went against Prosser, so please don’t insult us with your ignorant nonsense that Bayfield, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Stevens Point, Ashland, Superior, Hayward, Monroe, Viroqua, Dodgeville, and Spring Green just love Prosser and Walker.

    Comment by wisconsite — April 10, 2011 @ 2:36 pm

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