so even if the polling heading into today's voting put the republican governor scott walker ahead and consistently ahead, well, maybe there's big turnout means that democrats were evening it up. evening it up on election day with these big turnout numbers. when we saw the exit polls today, the answers to the surveys of voters after they were done voting in wisconsin today, we saw those and it, again, seemed like it was going to be a long night and those exit polls showing an incredibly close race. they showed that union households in particular, were out in force. union households voting in a higher proportion of the electorate may have been voting in 2010. and they're voting just as heavily as they did in that previous election for democrat tom barrett over scott walker. exit polls also showed that women were voting in favor of tom barrett by a significant margin. two indicators that made it seem like we would be in for a really long night and we had always planned to be on live tonight at midnight eastern but, frankly, the way we were talking about

this nerng e thing in terms of planning our coverage we were not sure we would be able to tell at this late lour, right now, after midnight on the east coast, who had won this governor's race in wisconsin. that's how close this race was looking. possible all-nighter. maybe even ""the today show"" tomorrow morning couldn't help you out with the results. or maybe the recall of governor scott walker would be decided in a matter of 49 minutes. 49 minutes. 49 minutes after the polls closed in wisconsin. nbc news declared scott walker the projected winner. on track to beat tom barrett, the democratic play of partly cloudy, once all the votes were counted. it didn't even take an hour. and then 24 minutes after that, nbc news projecting that the republican lieutenant governor, the first lieutenant governor to face recall anywhere in america, rebecca kleefisch, would also win her recall election over her democratic challenger. so a huge win for the republicans in the state of wisconsin and a real disappointment for the democrats

who felt they had a chance of taking back the governor's offers before the end of the governor's first term. they thought that even though their candidate, tom barrett, never led once in the polls after he became the nominee. meanwhile, the balance of power in the wisconsin state senate is still being decided tonight. in addition to the governor and lieutenant governor, democrats put four republican state senate seats up for recall today. the highest profile of the races, the biggest challenge for democrats in the effort is an effort in the most conservative district in the state. to recall the incumbent republican state senate president, scott fitzgerald, the effort to replace him with the political newcomer on the democratic side, with 82% in, lori compas. scott gets ger wrald has a lead. and in district 21, van win guard is facing former state

senator, john lehman, the man he beat in order to win the seat in 2010. with 22% of precincts reporting in that senate district. wanggaarb is beading but just 22% in. incumbent republican senator terry moulton, against cristian desk dexter. leading by 16 points. at 58% and his democratic challenger, 42%. and the final republican seat up for recall, no incumbent republican. the incumbent republican senator quit rather than go through the recall. it's now this republican state representative, jerry petrowski and he has a comfortable 20-point plus lead but the

marquee race for governor is garnering national attention. at his election headquarters, governor scott walker tonight, very, very happy, obviously, with tonight's results and looking ahead to the day after the election. >> tonight, we tell wisconsin we tell our country, and we tell people all across the globe that voters real will you do wanted leaders who stand up and make the tough decisions. but now it's time to forward. a few minutes ago i talked to mayor tom barrett. no, no, i talked to the mayor

and said i'm committed to work with you to help the city of milwaukee and the state of wisconsin. tomorrow the election is over and it's time to move wisconsin forward. >> for his part, in milwaukee, at his headquarters on the democratic side, mayor tom barrett of milwaukee, conceded the race tonight. he said he hoped that the energy from the recall effort will continue to carry forward. >> i just got off the phone with governor walker and congratulated him on his victory tonight. we agreed that it is important for us to work together. we are a state that's been deeply divided. and it is up to all of us, our side, and their side, to listen, to listen to each other and to strie to do what's right for everyone in the state, to those of you who fought, who obtained

signatures. who stood out in the cold, who did what you thought was right, never, ever stop doing what you think is right. it is my sincere hope that all of us here that all of us here will remain engaged and for those of who have been involved for the first time or the 20th time i hope you got the same energy from this as i did. >> this is dan boois, political columnist for the "sentinel." let me ask you about the similarity in the two candidate's speeches. both governor walker and his defeated challenger, tom barrett, saying we need to work together. we need to listen and actually put this sort of divisiveness reflected in this election behind us. you expect a gesture towards that from both sides. do you think there's any hope of

that kind of change in tone? do you think there's any bipartisan impulse in that direction after what the state's just been through? >> no. i think, you know, there will be a limit bit of this for the next couple of weeks or maybe the next month. then we'll roll into the presidential elections. and i think after that, governor walker will use the power and influence he has from this election, and he'll try to make wisconsin, as he has already, a laboratory for conservative ideas. >> is there any sense that, i guess -- is there any sense that governor walker will admit that? i see that, too. i was talking earlier tonight with other pundits who were sort of saying, maybe this is a chance for governor walktory go and sort of may talk back to the center or anything. i think he now runs for president, essentially and goes as hard as he can? >> yeah. i don't think that he's -- i

don't think leel look immediately for some sort of national office. he doesn't have the credentials for foreign policy experience or anything like that. i think his plan is going to be to do what he wants to do. that is to implement a conservative agenda for the state. and through the collective bargaining changes, he's helped to undercut the funding source for democratic politicians in the state. if you look at where tom barrett raised most of his money, even though he was not the choice of labor unions that's where he got his money. there was a report in the "wall street journal" saying numg ber of people who belong to the main public employee union in wisconsin is down by more than 50%. these groups are not going to have the money to put up a solid candidate against him the next time he runs. knowing these things, i don't see why he wouldn't go ahead and push forward with his agenda. >> that's been my analysis about what's being going on in this fight from the beginning. this is about structurally changing wisconsin and i think

the republican party would like to change as much of the country in this mold as they can so democrats can't compete. republicans can counts on a lot of business-community money. the democrats have been only able to put up union money to compete with that if that goes away because unions go away, that's it. game over. is there any sort of, i guess, plan even within wisconsin, for the democratic side to recover, now that they're already seeing public sector unions have their legs cut out from under them? >> i think there was so much hope put into this race. the public unions put their money on the wrong candidate to begin with in the primary. and after they lost there, they kept a very low profile. but they continued to put money in with tom barrett. with the party, it's going 20e6 -- there's going to have to be some major overhaul and changes for them to figure out how they're going to be a viable party within the state. and i don't think that scott

walker thinks about these things in terms of where the republicans and we're going to defeat the democrats this way. i think he sincerely believes he's doing the right thing and the right thing will probably be, major tax cuts. that will probably be the next thing. i listened to -- i went back and listened to his debate from 2010, with tom barrett and he mentioned repeatedly that he wanted to cut taxes in the state. that's one thing he hadn't done. and "right to work" that at the last debate he declined to stay whether he would veto that if it reached his desk. there might be some smaller things that he offers that are conciliatory. but he's won the game. there's no reason for him to have to offer any olive branches to the democratic party, long term. >> any expecting conciliation from this point forward has missed what happened thus far.

dan bice, political columnist. your paper took an editorial position in favor of scott walker and in that context, your columns about the subjects, specifically on the technical, makeup of the wisconsin electorate, even within that context, have been more important than almosting in else i read in terms of understanding the other side of the fight. dan, thanks very much. >> thank you very much. >> besides all the results, from the big night in wisconsin, there's a ton of other stuff to report including a weird tobacco affair with california which it turns out doesn't smoke? and the u.s. claim of a really big deal, killing of a reported enemy of the state. please, stay tuned. ean, homeowners insurance doesn't cover floods? [ heart rate increases ] man: a few inches of water caused all this? [ heart rate increases ] woman #2: but i don't even live near the water.

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we're a few minutes past election day on the east coast. about quarter past midnight here and legs day meant wisconsin voting on a slate of recalls but it also meant new jersey and montana and new mexico and south dakota and iowa and california where polls closed over an hour ago. in california, voters considered whether to add a dollar to the cost of a pack of cigarettes. a new cigarette tax that would raise much for cancer research. california already has the second lowest smoking rate in the nation. and the last time california raised taxes on smokes was by a voter referendum 14 years ago. so you'd think that california might be disposed toward this is idea. but this year, a $50 million campaign by big tobacco has been

doing some big-dollar magic on the electorate. supports for the cigarette tax dropped 14 points over the last couple of months. once the tobacco company advertising onslaught really geared up. at this hour in terms of results on that race in california, california proposition 29, a yes vote, to add the $1 tax to a pack of cigarettes and with so% of precincts reporting, just a four-point margin between the yes and no votes. 52% voting yes. 48% voting no. again, only a fraction of those votes are in yet and people will be watching california proposition 29, the cigarette tax very, very closely. in montana, you might remember the democratic state attorney general we had on the day to talk to him about his fight against citizen united. steve bullock. he had been favored to win the democratic primary for montana governor. republicans has to pick who to run against him. polls closed a couple of hours ago and in terms of what we know

on the democratic primary said side, the projegted winner is steve bullock been projected to have a big win. former congressman ric hill had been the favorite. right now with 89% of precincts reporting, the republican primary in montana for the governor's race with ric hill leading with 35% of the vote. in new jersey, democratic congressman versus democratic congressman, redriking in new jersey meant that only one of these incumbent congressmen, big pass skal or steve rothman could survive. both democrats and both incumbents. the districts in question is a safe democratic district. whether or not it was a factor we'll never know but the race was kind of a proxy is rematch of the obama versus clinton primary in 2008. bill clinton supported big pascrell and as a thank you,

president obama in a more low-key way supported the other guy, steve rothman. steve rothman smorted president obama in that '08 primary. in new jersey, mr. pascrell ran away with it and steve rothman will lose his seat in congress. but the overall wlakiest and illegal thing going on in electoral politics going on this week is not in wisconsin or any of these other states. it's really been what's happening in california. if wisconsin was not also going on in the same day this would have been the story everybody was fix stated on. >> dianne feinstein's race, as you know she's the senior democratic senator from california and been in the as a matter of fact a long 250i78 and she's the incumbent and running for re-election. all sounds normal, right? look at the ballot that she was running on. these are the names scrolling up here that was on the ballot. for senate. california changed its rule so in a race like this there's no

democratic primary and a republican primary and then the winner of each of those primaries runs in the general election in. the new way california is doing this, is that everybody runs all at once. everybody, all in the same primary, doesn't matter what party or if you're the incumbent or anything else. doesn't matter how many people from each party, everybody runs at once and the top two finishers, whoever they are, run against each other in the general election. presumably, dianne feinstein came in with a good shot at being one of the top two finishers here. who will she run against? there's 23 other people on the ballot. one of them has to be on the ballot with her in a general election? it could be a general election between the democratic ", senator feinstein versus one of the peace and freedom party people or it could be dianne feinstein, the democrat versus some other democrat in the general election. the thing is, none of the other 23 people on if ballot have made a statewide splash.

one of them has to end up on the ballot and none of them have any name recognition at all. the closest anything any of them have to name recognition is, oh, my god, orly taitz. she's famous for being the -- spent is whole obama presidency leading the charge on the birth certain cal charge. because of that sideshow reputation she happens to be the only person on the ballot in california, other than dianne feinstein with any name recognition at all. and with this new "everyone at once" primary that they're trying out in california, that means, as "the san francisco chronicle" said -- polls taken by robo call show feinstein with a wide lead. trailed by a strange assortment of single-digit rivals in some cases let by orly taitz.

it could happen. the way california set it up, the republican senate candidate in the most popular state in the country really could be the dentist birther queen! california california, i want you the breathe. at this hour in this crazy race we're showing senator feinstein clearly coming in first. senator feinstein, as expected in first, fleld by run elizabeth emken. orly taitz hanging in there maybing a go of it running 6 of 23 right now. i tell you this about california republicans flirting with making their senate nominee the dentist birther queen. i tell you this, a, because it's true and i want to assure my friends in wisconsin that as your intentionity reached it's apex today as crazy as your wisconsin politics have come and look to be going forward, i mean it when i tell you, you are not the craziest. you might not even be the craziest thing in american

politics at this moment.

back with our special coverage on this recall election night. nbc projecting scott walker as the winner in wisconsin over his democratic challenger, tom barrett. scott walker is the third u.s. governor to face recall in american history and the only one to have survived it. joining us now, john harwood. and "new york times" political

writer, thanks for being here, appreciate your time. >> hey, rachel. >> the polling ahead of the election showed scott walker ahead. tom barrett never led in any polls leading into this. especially in the exit polling today, it looked like it was going to be very, very close. in the end, it was not very close. do we know yet what happened? >> i've been trying to figure it out myself. we were expecting a long night. maybe not even a call tonight. not until the morning. and you know, you kept watching the returning come in and the pile got bigger and bigger and walker was up double digits and now, the latest numbers seen show about ten points maybe a little bit less, which is larger than his margin in 2010. so i'm quite surprised and don't know exactly what was often the measurement. whether there was a participation problem with people supporting walker not responding to the exit pollsters. that's always a possibility but i haven't heard it explained yet.

>> in terms of the other unexplained thing connected to the exit polls here, the other sort of thing we're still trying to figure out, whether it's a measuring thing or whether it's a confounding result, are these very positive numbers for president obama turning up in the exit polls. even as the state decides to keep scott walk her this electricity rat. the preference for obama over romney was an 11-point split. the president getting much better numbers than romney on the economy. what could explain a pro-obama,/pro-walker split decision like that? >> i think some voters don't like the idea of recalls on principal and it's possible, by polarizing, by party and ideology, for some voters to feel favorably disposed to scott walker on issues different from ones that they would judge president obama on, remember, they're both incumbents overseeing same economy.

some of the economic discussion tilted towards walker talking about how things are going better in wisconsin. that might have benefitted president obama. but, again, i think we did not know and if the exits showed a closer race than was actually measured by the vote counting, that might suggest that president obama's edge may not have actually been 11 points among those that showed up. >> it will be interested to see thousands parsed. and the exit polls are shared among multiple news organizations so it will be interesting to cease them get parsed over the next couple of days to figure out what's measurement and what's wacky. john harwood, thanks for staying up late and joining us. i really appreciate it. >> you bet. >> lots of other important nonwisconsin-related stories going on, including the story about the adolph hitler paintings in texas. hitler paintings, texas, and a

connection to the presidential race. that story is next. stay with us.

an unexpectedly quick result tonight from the recall election in wisconsin. exit polls all day had suggested that the margin was going to be tight. that it was going to be a long night waiting for a result from wisconsin because it was going to be so close.

but ultimately nbc news made their projection in this race early. it was less than an hour after polls closed that nbc news projected that republican governor scott walker would be holding on to his governorship. interestingly though, out of the same exit polls been they also showed a vast majority of wisconsin voters saying that they made up their minds how they were going to vote months ago. if that is true, that means that the state was making up its mind how it was going to vote tonight months ago while democrats were still messing with their own primary in the race when democrats didn't even have a candidate. so, scott walker had the state's airwaves to himself. he was airing tens of millions dollars worth of ads to recall him and that's before the democrats even got into the race. where tonight results came from and what they mean nationally and, also, the really big news from the white house today that got overshadowed by all the politics. that's coming up.

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so on a day like this in politics the one giant story tends to suck all the air out of the room and monopolize all the coverage but that doesn't mean no other news is going on.

today, news in wisconsin was amading. the prospect of orly tachlt aitz the birther -- dentist and displaying paintings of adolph hitler. this was overall a news day that would not quit. on national security terms, after about a day worth of very tentative speculation, that it might have happened but there was no confirmation, a finally today the white house did confirm the death of one of the last people in al qaeda who was a big enough deal to have a major press profile in the west. the american officials are confirm this is death came as a result of this week's american drone strike in pakistan. here's "the new york times" profiling him as al qaeda's rising leader in 2008. here's foreign policy magazine profiling him as the next bin laden in 1999.

and the guy number go, zawari and after he moved up to number two to be the top guy, who would place up zawari? this guy. the guy the white house says today, that the united states has just killed. >> i can tell you that our intelligence community has intelligence that leads them to believee qaeda's number two leader, is dead. i can't get into details of how his death was brought about. but i can tell you that he served as al qaeda's general manager, responsible for overseeing groups day-to-day operations in the tribal areas of pakistan.

and he managed outreach to al qaeda's regional affiliates. there is no now clear successor to take on the breadth of his responsibilities. >> now, the caveat here is that this is not the first time this guy has been reported dead. but if, in fact, if intelligence the bourn out and they killed the second in command, the operational chief 069 whole organization, then it is not overstating the case to call this announcement today a major, majoral qaeda. this is a big deal. and 52 u.s. senators recorded "yes" votes concerning the "paycheck fairness act" extending protections for women who are paid less than men for performing the same work. 52 senators voted yes. that means it's the majority in a normal world but in the united states senate the minority republicans have, instead, filibustered everything. so even though this democrats

had the majority, the republicans blocked it with a filibuster. president obama released a statement on it calling today's vote, quote, incredibly disappointing. that in this make-or-break moment for the middle class senate republicans put partizan politics ahead of american women and families despite the progress made over the years, women to continue to earn substantially less than men for performing the same work. that's been interesting to see republicans this year try to not have the fight be about whether or not -- not have the fight be about how we can remedy the pay did sparity. the republicans have just started denying that there's any pay disparity what is over. the president saying women earn substantially less than men for performing the same work calling the factual question that republicans have now moved into denying. also, in pretty strong language. calling this a "make-or-break moment" and "partizan politics" the president taking a clear advocacy stance.

and mitt romney is refusing to take a stand either way on the bill. and every republican in the senate voted against it today. every republican in the senate voted against it, including scott brown of massachusetts. scott brown veet against paycheck fairness for women which should go over great in massachusetts this fall. mean while, we're stilling to hear on the important voter suppression situation in the state of florida. as we reported exclusively here on the show, on thursday night, the justice department wrote to the state of florida that night and demanded they stop purging voters off the state's voter roles. the justice department said to florida, they had not asked for federal clearance under the voting rights act to go ahead with the purge and the state might be violating the national voter registration act by purging voters off the list too close to a federal election. that letter gave florida until

tomorrow to respond. the justice department wants them to stop the purge, but so far, republican officials from florida, including the state's governor, ric scott, have not made any public noises to the effect that they'll stop the purge in response to the justice department's demand but depend f depending on what the state does in the next 24 hours, this issue about florida's voting purge and this confrontation with the federal justice department over it, this will become a big deal. set your google news alert on that. lastly, what is never likely to become a big deal, because for some reason republicans never get in trouble for stuff like this. even when democrats do. likely to never become a big deal but you should know is going on in american politics today. that's this. this is where mitt romney is holding a super big-dollar fund raise tonight in texas. you can't go unless you give the republican party $50,000, or you bundle together, $200,000 in donations.

if you're the kind of person that can put your hand on that kind of money for republican purposes you're the kind of person who can dine tonight at this mansion in texas with mitt romney, under two paintings by adolph hitler. hitler's paintings, european city scenes, apparently, and also an original signed copy of a book, signed by hitler himself. neat! they are among the items on display from the personal collection of texas conservative billionaire har harlan crowe at his mansion where mr. romney hosts his richest donors. it was in the "dallas morning news." nobody is saying that harlan crow or mitt romney is celebrating hitler. all they're doing is eating dinner and raising money under the watchful eye of the hitler paintings, alongside the other paintings in his collection from lots of other famous people. imagine what the rite would do

if that were the president obama making that decision instead of a republican? imagine! )93g

in the president 1458 election in 2008 in the great state of us wisconsin, barack obama beat john mccain by 14 points in wisconsin on his way to winning the presidency. it was not close in the badger state. it was a democratic blowout. that was 2008. then, just two years later, in 2010 in wisconsin and in what was a bright red year across the country, in wisconsin, voter turnout fell by 20 points, compared with the presidential race. and voter turnout disproportionately fell in democratic districts. republicans turned out again in 2010, but democrats really did mouth.

almost a million fewer people voted in wisconsin in the 2010 race as compared to 2008. and as a result, republicans just ran the board. republicans in wisconsin, they won the state assembly. they won the state senate and republican scott walker won the governorship as well. republicans had a complete lock on state government after that brought red 2010 low turnout election. now, scott walker said during the campaign if he were elected governor he planned to a hard because gain with public workers in wisconsin in terms of trying to achieve savings and balance the state's budget and, at least, cut spending. once he got into office, it turned out to be a whole different thing. public workers in the state pretty quickly agreed to every financial demand that scott walker made of them. all the salary cuts, and layoffs and furlows and changes to pension and health insurance contributions, all the things that scott walker asked of them that had a monetary value, 2458d have an effect on the state's budget, public workers said

"yes" to and agreed to the concessions but governor walker decided he wouldn't take "yes" for an answer. he had a different idea. governor walker and the newly-elected republicans in wisconsin with complete control of the state government, decided they were after something much bigger and demanded that public workers don't just give up the financial concessions they agreed to give up. they demanded they give up their rights. their union rights. public worker had already made every concession and agreed to give up everything he asked for. the only thing they hadn't agreed to was to commit proverbial suicide as an organization. and the republicans answer to that was, actually, yeah, we need you dead. it does not matter what you offer in material terms, the only thing that matters to us is that you no longer exist. this was not what republicans ran on but this is what they did when they got into office. they never warned anybody this was going to be their approach but once they got there, that was it.

they blindsided everybody. and the result was chaos. it was just statewide chaos. weekly protests started at the state capitol in madison. they started with crowds of about 30,000 very cold people. that quickly turned into 70,000 people, just a few days later. that 70,000 people then turned into 100,000 people the week after that. these protests against the republicans kept going on for weeks and then for months in wisconsin. the democrats in the state senate fled the state amid threats that the republicans might deploy state troopers to drag the democratic senators from their homes and forcibly bring them to the state capitol to force a quorum so the republicans could do what they wanted to do. democrats fled beyond the reach of the state patrol. they fled the state. they fled across state lines, out of wisconsin and into illinois. and they stayed there for weeks. and even with no quorum, because the democrats were gone, without the quorum, with no apparent

legal way to get it done, the republicans in wisconsin in march of last year, just decided to get it done anyway. >> at this time i move to adopt the -- >> excuse me, mr. chairman, mr. chairman, i have a question about the open meetings rule being violated. we were not given two hours notice. >> this is a violation of law. this is not just a rule, it is the law. there must be -- mr. chairman, this is a violation of the opened meetings law. it requires at least two hours notice. >> what have you done? >> excuse me -- >> that was how they did it. by hook or by crook and in an

atmosphere of utter chaos and lawlessness in wisconsin, they did it. the republicans pulled it off. they got rid of union rights in the state pretty much in which they were born in this country. and republicans all across the country looked at what they were doing in wisconsin and all of a sudden they new they had hey new brass ring to reach for. this is the chart that gives life meaning, at least, this is the chart that gives life meaning for people who have been engaged in this fight. certainly, for republicans who have been engaged in the fight they know what this chart means. this is charts of the biggest outside spending groups in the last elections. the top ten outside spenders in the last elections, in the 2010 elections. of the top ten, 6 of 10 are giving to the republican side. look at that. number one, two, three, four, they're all giving to the republicans side. they're corporate groups in corporate-funded groups.

6 of 10 top 10 and all 4 of top 4. the majority of the money going to the republican side, corporate money. the only three groups in the top ten giving to the other side, the democrats, are well, these three. what do these three have in common? see? this is the key to everything for the republicans. this is the thing i can't believe hadn't become the national narrative about this fight in wisconsin. it's not a personality thing. follow the money. this is the brass ring. whole enchilada. the ball of wax, the big kahuna. the end all be all. this is everything for them. they know it. only thing democrats have been able to come up with to compete with the big outside money on the corporate side all going to the republicans, the only meager competition the democrats can offer the republicans at the all, in terms of big money in campaigns, is from the unions.

the republicans are winning, but the only competition the democrats are giving them are from unions. if republicans can kill downyons, then, well, if republicans can use policy to kill unions there will no longer be two sides competing when it comes to big money in politics. it will all be republican money. no matter who the candidates are, no matter what office or what the election year. to a certain degree, no matter where in the country you're talking about, republicans will be running unopposed, forever. after this scott walker union stripping law was rammed through in wisconsin in the midst of all the state chaos, indeed, in wisconsin the unions started to whither away. it was phat. strip union rights and this is what happens. the changes in some of the biggest unions in wisconsin. right? this law has only be there for a year and look what it's done already. strip union rights and you make unions go away. that's what this law is designed to do. make them go away as organizations.

and that does directly hurt the people in those jobs. but more importantly, perhaps, maybe the bigger picture here, is that it makes sure that the organizations that help democrats go away, it makes sure that democrats can't ever compete again in elections. the right, of course, is ecstatic about this possibility. a documented $30 million flowed to scott walker for his recall campaign. johnny nickels reporting, nationwide, right wing money flowing into wisconsin to support scott walker. this is the brass ring. this is not just to win now but forever. grab it. you have got to succeed at this! and this is how that ended up looking inside wisconsin. this is what the money ended up looking like in this recall election that ended tonight. this is to scale. on the left, the big circle? that's the overall amount of

money that went to the scott walker side. the red part is the portion of that money that's from out of state. so as you can see a vast majority of the moun is from out of state. the smaller orange portion there, that's what he got from actually inside wisconsin. scott walker is a nationwide cause celeb on the right for obvious reasons. but the most important thing here is that maybe less about the inside the state, outside the state split, than it is about the relative size of the two circles. on the right, that tiny limit circle, that's the democrats. that's what democrats were able to put up to compete where the nationwide right-wing cause celeb that is scott walker and his plan to reshape wisconsin and, hopefully, national politics forever. the vast majority of the money that went to democrats as you can see, confirm wisconsin. but it's the size of the circles that made the difference in the end. they have outspent, roughly, 8-1. with the republicans having that

spending advantage and with the democratic side having sustained the damage that they already sustained and are continuing to sustain and will continue to us scott walker side running ads starting at christmas time and thanks to the recall calendar, the democrats not even getting a named candidate until last month, so scott walker having the state's airwaves to himself for months while the state, we now learned, was making up its mind in this. the recall of scott walker side, had been trying to roll this recall boulder and we know they didn't make it. one year after republican governor scott walker began his journey to eliminate union rights in wisconsin, one year after scott walker turned to the state of wisconsin into the epicenter of american political conflicts, he has managed to survivor his recall election. scott walker has become the first governor in american history to face a recall election and to win it. and the question now is -- what

does this mean for the rest of the country? what does this mean to republican politicians all across the country who has seen what scott walker has done in wisconsin and seen him survive it? not just survive it but see his status elevated within the republic party? what do you think he stands for in the republic party now. he's not only a cause celeb in republican politics but he's shown the rest of the party, at least one way to do it, right? destroy union rights in your state using public policy. get there by hook or crook and you can there by, destroy the unions. if you destroy the unions you can make republicans untouchable in every election at that point forward with no perceived way to reverse it. suddenly, no structural apparatus on the democratic side that can compete. the rum party has a new brass ring to reach for.

th this election tonight may have just been one recall election for one governor's seat in one state in the nation. what happens next? what happens as a result of this, this could be the biggest politics' story of all. political divide -- republican governor, scott walker of wisconsin, narrowly fends off a recall challenge. what's wrong with this picture? a routine traffic stop produces a bizarre photo op for colorado police. and crown of thorns -- miss pennsylvania resigns with some shocking claims about the miss usa pageant. good morning, everyone, i'm lynn berry and those stories and more are straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc.