OPINION:
In Wisconsin at least, the show went on Tuesday, coronavirus or no coronavirus.
Unlike 10 other states that also were supposed to have held Democratic presidential primaries or caucuses in April — all of which have been postponed — the Badger State went ahead with its primary.
The Republican-led Wisconsin Legislature, called into special session on Saturday by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, rejected his call for an 11th-hour postponement of the primary there. And on Monday, the state Supreme Court overruled as unconstitutional Mr. Evers’ unilateral executive order postponing the vote as being beyond the scope of his executive authority.
How big the turnout at the polls was going to be amid coronavirus “sheltering in place” was anyone’s guess, especially given that there were far fewer than normal voting precincts open. Milwaukee reportedly was planning on having just five polling stations open across the city, rather than the usual 180, because of a mass shortage of available poll workers.
However, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said that it had sent out 1.2 million absentee ballots, and that as of Monday, more than 724,000 had been returned, according to Milwaukee’s WISN-TV.
Whether Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont remains in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination could hinge on how well he does (or doesn’t do) in Wisconsin, a state whose primary he won handily in 2016. He trounced Hillary Clinton that year 56.6 percent to 43 percent.
Ahead of Tuesday, polls showed Mr. Sanders trailing former Vice President Joe Biden badly this time around. But the “X factor” is: Whose supporters were more motivated to come out of seclusion to show up at the polls?
After losing the most recent primaries on March 17 in Arizona, Florida and Illinois by large margins, Mr. Sanders would be hard-pressed to justify remaining in the race if he also loses Wisconsin. All bets are off, however, if the Vermonter wins Wisconsin, which would revivify his campaign.
Establishment Democrats are fit to be tied that Mr. Sanders hasn’t already dropped out of the race and endorsed Mr. Biden.
The conventional wisdom is that Mr. Sanders has remained in the race despite having no plausible expectation of overtaking Mr. Biden in the delegate count, solely for leverage to extract the maximum left-wing concessions in the party’s platform at the Democratic convention this summer.
That’s surely true, as was the case in 2016, but it wouldn’t surprise us if Mr. Sanders also is holding out because Mr. Biden is increasingly seen as too frail — and frequently incoherent — for the rigors of going toe-to-toe in a long and brutal campaign against President Trump this fall.
As the second-to-last man standing, Mr. Sanders would rightly regard himself as heir apparent for the nomination if Mr. Biden were to withdraw, and his far-left “Bernie Bro” supporters would surely revolt if the Democratic establishment were to coronate, say, Mrs. Clinton or New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo instead.
Either way, however, for Team Trump, it’s pure schadenfreude.
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