Walker still alive, HB194 quashing votes, and Josh "don't call me Howie" Mandel gets tricky

the following three blurbs come via the Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest (it's free and you can get it for yourself by simply signing up at the Daily Kos): 

WI-Gov: Joshua Spivak of the Recall Elections blog has some thoughts on voter turnout in Tuesday night's gubernatorial primaries and what it might augur for the June general election. To me, what stands out most is that there were 670,278 total votes in the hotly contested Democratic primary, while an almost equal number, 646,458, were cast in the meaningless GOP primary. The fact that Republican voters decided to show up en masse and vote for Scott Walker anyway, even though there was no reason to, is a troubling sign to me.

OH HB194: Well this is pretty crazy. Last year, Ohio Republicans passed a restrictive election law known as HB194 which, among other things, would reduce the period for early voting and make it harder for voters to obtain absentee ballots. A group called Fair Elections Ohio succeeded in gathering enough signatures to put the measure before voters for a possible repeal this fall... but rather than face defeat, Republicans are instead trying to repeal the law themselves, via the legislature!

Democrats, however, are calling shenanigans, saying that it's a repeal in name only, because some provisions included in HB194 were separately re-passed in other legislation. Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted nevertheless says he thinks the "people's veto" measure should not appear on the November ballot, but the Fair Elections folks are vowing to fight to ensure that the repeal vote does take place. It sounds like this will all end up in court soon enough.

OH-Sen: Awesome. Gotta love Republican Josh Mandel's decision to stonewall reporters into eternity... about everything:

Mandel also continued his policy of refusing to weigh in on active congressional legislation. A reporter asked where he stood on a bill from Brown and other Senate Democrats that would keep interest rates on federal student loans from doubling and saddling graduates—including young entrepreneurs—with more debt.

Mandel said he was glad "politicians in Washington" were discussing the issue but said he was not involved in the debate and would not "cast imaginary votes."