UP: Republicans. The GOP wallops Democrats across the state, winning the governor's race, securing majorities in the state Assembly and Senate, knocking out veteran U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold and handily reelecting Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. The GOP tsunami is so vast that David King, the Republican nominee for secretary of state who calls himself an apostle and Jim Doyle a "crackhead" and who has been accused in a lawsuit of rape, garnered more than a million votes to nearly defeat 32-year incumbent Doug La Follette.
DOWN: Hooligans. City officials declare victory over Halloween celebrations on State Street, which once routinely degenerated into late-night clashes. At this year's Freakfest, police arrested just 44 people, the lowest tally since the event began in 2006, when the total was 155. But one thing that hasn't decreased is obvious costumes. "If I saw one Chilean miner," Ald. Mike Verveer tells the Wisconsin State Journal, "I saw a million of them."
