From Wisconsin 2025 to Westminster 1807, Elections, Bribery and Democracy
On 2nd April 2025 the Democratic candidate for a vacancy on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court was declared the winner over the Republican candidate. Views on the politics of the US Democratic Party will vary but this at least stopped the politics of Trumpism from running amok in the State.
The unusual feature of the election was that unelected far right business owner and Trump sidekick Elon Musk tried to buy the election for the Republican candidate with millions of dollars being used in the campaign. He failed
It’s a reminder that sometimes the rich and powerful don’t always get there way.
There are historical parallels. In the Making of the English Working Class the late historian E P Thompson discusses the election for a two member seat at Westminster in the General Election of 1807.
Two radical candidates Burdett and Cochrane triumphed. What was interesting about their victory was that it was down to an independent campaign of electors determined to keep the election free of bribery and patronage
The radical journalist William Cobbett campaigned on the basis that electors, freeman, traders, artisans should free themselves by their own exertions from patronage, bribery and deference…
Thompson writes of the ‘effectiveness of a new form of electoral organisation dependent not on the wealth or influence of the candidate but on the voluntary exertions of the electors
Despite his apparent interest in the UK I don’t think Elon Musk knows any British history
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