The energy at the Capitol, drawn both from anger and enthusiasm, could be an incredible political resource for Democrats and other left-leaning candidates in the spring elections.
If progressives take advantage of the thousands of recently-engaged activists and spectators, it seems to me they could make big gains on county boards and city and town councils. Who knows? Maybe they could even make the race for Supreme Court competitive.
Currently, the race for the seat currently occupied by Justice David Prosser was considered safe for the incumbent, who is running for re-election. Although generally regarded as a conservative, Prosser does not wear the label on his sleeve (he has rebuked a press release his campaign sent out that claimed he would "complement the governor"), even though his history as former GOP Speaker of the Assembly leave little room for interpretation of his politics. Nevertheless, in the context of the current court, he is in the middle.
At the protests I have a couple people passing out lit for his opponent, JoAnn Kloppenburg. If the Democratic Party knows what it's doing it should be sending out press releases referencing Prosser decisions that came down against labor, and it would continue to pummel the justice's campaign for promising to "complement the new governor and legislature." Labor + power struggle = winning strategy for Dems this spring.
