Wisconsin
The signature gathering in Wisconsin to recall Governor Walker began in earnest nearly two weeks ago, and already they’ve collected quite a few signatures.
The United Wisconsin coalition claims to have collected 300,000 signatures in just 12 days, which puts them over halfway to the roughly 540,000 needed to force a recall election. When collecting signatures it’s not unusual for some of them to be thrown out as incorrect or unidentifiable. However, even with the bad signatures taken out the coalition to force a recall is off to a pretty effective start.
What do you think? Will those seeking to recall the governor of Wisconsin be successful in their efforts?
The campaign to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker gets most of the media’s attention around the state and country. However, there is another recall effort currently underway in the city of Sheboygan, Wisconsin:
Jubilant opponents of Republican Gov. Scott Walker launched their effort Tuesday to try to recall him from office, starting a 60-day blitz to gather more than half a million signatures to force an election next year. The drive to collect an average of 9,000 signatures a day, fueled by anger over Walker’s successful push to take away nearly all public worker collective bargaining rights, began with pajama parties and other events after midnight. Daytime activities included rallies, neighborhood canvasses and booths set up around the state Capitol.
In what is sure to be a hard-fought and intense process, the recall campaign against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker began yesterday across the state:
Jubilant opponents of Republican Gov. Scott Walker launched their effort Tuesday to try to recall him from office, starting a 60-day blitz to gather more than half a million signatures to force an election next year.
Embattled Sheboygan Mayor Bob Ryan has one more thing to worry about. Tuesday, volunteers submitted thousands of signatures needed to launch a recall election. Its now up to the Government Accountability Board to verify 4,100 signatures. While the mayor wouldn’t comment to NBC26, we do know he has requested copies of the signatures.
State senators who face recall elections in the coming months will have to run in their existing districts rather than newly drawn ones that favor Republicans, the state’s top elections official said Wednesday. The opinion by Kevin Kennedy, director of the Government Accountability Board, will help Democrats as they try to take over the Senate by launching recall petition drives as early as next month. It also raises the prospect of a fierce legal battle over the issue, as Republicans could ask a court to require the elections in the new districts.
A second effort to remove troubled Sheboygan Mayor Bob Ryan is now underway as one alderman suggests putting the issue to a vote. Alderman Kevin Mati Chek has notified the State he intends to circulate recall petitions against Mayor Ryan.
Ryan, an admitted alcoholic, is under fire for a couple of incidents involving alcohol. The most recent occurred last month, when Elkhart Lake police say he instigated a disturbance at a bar there.
In all, Wisconsin voters recalled nine state senators, three Democrats and six Republicans, forcing them to stand for new elections. So far, one incumbent D has been re-elected and four of six Rs have kept their seats, with two GOP senators defeated. The last two districts vote today, with two incumbent Democrats on the ballot against Republican challengers.
“Unprecedented” is a word that seems to get unprecedented use these days. But today’s six recall elections in Wisconsin, which could flip partisan control of the state senate, truly are part of an exceptional recall effort.
As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:
Since 1908, there have been 20 recorded state legislative recall elections held in the United States, according to one recall expert. Wisconsin is in the process of holding nine such elections in the space of a month.
The recall battle lives on in Wisconsin this week as state Democrats file a fourth recall effort against Republican state senators.
Not to be outdone, Republicans also filed another two recall petitions of their own today, against Democratic State Senator Jim Holperin, and Senator Robert Hansen.
The next few months are sure to be interesting in Wisconsin politics. If all of the various recall efforts on both sides come to fruition the political landscape in the state could be drastically different by this time next year.
Wisconsin Democrats have filed a petition to recall a fourth Republican state senator as part of their ongoing campaign to roll back Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-union legislation. Volunteers filed more than 23,000 signatures to recall Republican state Sen. Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls with election officials yesterday, the AP reports. Petitions have already been filed against Republican state Senators Luther Olsen of Ripon, Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac and Dan Kapanke of LaCrosse.
Tensions are still high in Wisconsin over Governor Scott Walker’s budget reform bill. Recall efforts against both Republicans and Democrats are in full swing. 
The group running the campaign to recall Democrat Senator Robert Wirch says they have collected enough signatures to get it onto the ballot. Senator Wirch was one of the 14 Democrat state senators who fled the state during the budget battle earlier this year.
La Crosse area Democrats say they will file petitions today with enough signatures to trigger a recall election of Sen. Dan Kapanke, one of eight Senate Republicans targeted over votes to curtail collective bargaining rights for public workers. If approved, it would be just the fifth recall election of a Wisconsin legislator.
It’s the greatest municipal recall in US history, and the most significant recall election since California voters ousted former governor Gray Davis in 2003. An astounding 88 percent of voters said Tuesday that they wanted to recall Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez from office. According to the New York Times, voters were angry that the Republican mayor of America’s ninth most populous county raised taxes and increased the salaries of his aids at the height of the recession.
As we noted last week, recall efforts are ramping up in Wisconsin against both Republican and Democrat state legislators. Not one to miss out on a good political fight, Sarah Palin weighed in on the recall efforts:
On Saturday’s “Justice with Jeanine” on the Fox News Channel, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin weighed in on the turmoil in Wisconsin. Her solution: fire the senators standing in the way of Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal.