KATHY NICKOLAUS: REASONS YOU MIGHT WANT TO VOTE "STUPID" RATHER THAN "EVIL"

In comments to my last Wisconsin post, c u n d gulag directs my attention to a story by The Nation's John Nichols about what's going on in deeply Republican Waukesha County. Nichols finds it very suspicious that county clerk Kathy Nickolaus has suddenly discovered a large number of votes -- but I want to note that a Daily Kos diarist has gone into the memory bank and rescued a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story from 2006 about Nickolas:

Computer glitches, inoperable equipment and other problems troubled Tuesday's primary balloting in Waukesha County, resulting in one candidate mistakenly being posted as winner of a race only later to be declared the loser....

Christine Lufter, who lost a Republican primary in the 97th Assembly District, said Wednesday that she would not likely challenge the outcome, although she was still trying to sort out what happened....

Computer monitors at the county clerk's office late Tuesday briefly showed Lufter winning her race, as county officials scrambled to correct flawed returns from the City of Waukesha.

Final results later showed Lufter losing to fellow Republican Bill Kramer by a significant margin.

County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus said some returns from the City of Waukesha inexplicably had data recorded in the wrong column, which momentarily skewed results....

The events of this week favor a Republican against a judicial candidate who appears progressive -- but the 2006 glitch affected two Republicans. Did the final outcome favor a wingnut over a moderate?

Well, no. Bill Kramer is currently a reliable Scott Walker ally -- but here's Lufter's announcement of her candidacy, from '06:

Noted taxpayer and pro-life advocate, and Town of Waukesha resident Christine Lufter today announced her candidacy for the 97th Assembly District seat being vacated by Ann Nischke.

"I've spent virtually my entire life in Waukesha, and like most conservatives, I want to make sure the 97th District is represented by someone who shares a deep commitment to our strong fiscal and social conservative values, someone who will not say one thing on the campaign trail but vote differently once in office. Over the past several days I have received many phone calls encouraging me to run, and after praying about it and spending time talking with family and friends, I have decided to continue my passionate fight against needless government spending as a candidate for the state assembly, where if elected, I will fight to lower the tax burden on our citizens and be a tireless advocate for pro-life causes." commented Lufter.

For the past two years Lufter has served as President of the Waukesha Taxpayers League, leading the fight against the 2005 Waukesha School referendum, as well as reducing the size of the Waukesha County Board....

Down-the-line boilerplate right-winger. If this is the person who was harmed by Nickolaus's rejiggering of the results in '06, I have a hard time seeing how it was done out of sinister right-wing intent.

(Oh, and in the general election in '06, Waukesha was the last county to report results. So to me this seems to be an ongoing competence problem.)