Wisconsin's Crowley Is About to Get Shellacked Over His Miserable Record

David Crowley beat Francesca Hong by all of 3,211 votes, which tells you everything about where the Wisconsin Democratic Party actually stands right now. That wasn't a moderate cruising to victory. That was a party base that came within a hair of nominating an avowed democratic socialist for governor of a state Republicans need to win back. Crowley squeaked through, and now the spin will be that he's the "reasonable" pick, the guy who can win over suburban moms and factory workers alike. Don't buy it.

A closer margin against the far left doesn't make someone a centrist. It makes him someone who had to out-flank a socialist just to survive his own primary. Crowley's record in Milwaukee County speaks for itself, and it's not the record of a pragmatist. He's spent years managing a county government that struggles with basic services while talking like every problem can be solved with another tax hike or another progressive pilot program. That's not moderation. That's just a softer voice saying the same things.

Tom Tiffany doesn't need to invent a caricature here. He just needs to point at the primary results and ask Wisconsin voters a simple question: if this is who beat the socialist, what does that say about the party underneath him? Crowley is "beatable" not because Republicans are underestimating him, but because his own base barely wanted him in the first place. That's the story Democrats don't want told, and it's the one that matters most heading into November.