Charlie Sykes secretly terrified for Scott Walker

Legendary coif in evident disarray

"Unlikely this will catch on in any big way," denies local medium-wave hominid Charlie Sykes. He's squawking about advice issuing from some Democratic quarters to forego the Democratic Party ballot and select a Republican one next Tuesday, to vote for Republican candidate for governor Mark Neumann against Sykes's favorite Scott Walker.

Wisconsin has an open primary, and a qualified elector needn't even declare party affiliation when voting. At the polling station, a voter receives separate ballots listing candidates for each party respectively, and then chooses one or the other in the voting booth.

It might be unlikely to catch on in a big way in Milwaukee County, where there are a number of competitive Democratic primary races and liberals won't pass up an opportunity to dethrone, for example, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke or State Senator Jeff Plale, both widely viewed by progressive observers as political impostors.

Dane County, the State capitol seat and repository of Wisconsin's second largest population of registered voters, is a different story. Left-leaning voters in Madison — which is nearly all of them, according to standard conservative mythology — could be sorely tempted to derail career politician Scott Walker's lifelong ambitions.

Late momentum favoring Neumann

And the temptation needn't catch on "in a big way," as the radio gabber fears. For one thing, Rasmussen Reports already shows Scott Walker and Mark Neumann in a dead heat,* and for another, Walker needs to deal with voters in Wisconsin's hardline conservative counties, among the next most populous after Milwaukee and Dane.

Potential Democratic shenanigans aside, those out-State voters are the ones the big city-bred Scott Walker really needs to be concerned about, and his comically desperate attempts to paint Mark Neumann as a Nancy Pelosi clone demonstrate that he's very concerned indeed.

No wonder Charlie Sykes's hair helmet is figuratively disheveled.

* Head to head against the (unopposed**) Democratic candidate, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Scott Walker and Mark Neumann are equally favored. Moreover: "Support for Neumann is up three points from earlier this month [at August 27] and is the highest measured for the candidate since polling of the race began in February."

The latter finding is the true source of the Scott Walker contingent's fear and trembling. Mark Neumann has captured the late momentum.

** eta: Whoops. Sorry about that, Tim John.