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I think this is a bit early and supporters of the recall of Dan Kapanke are jumping the gun, but they have decided that they are confident enough in their numbers to turn in signatures today.
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.
Recall organizer Pat Scheller said volunteers have gathered more than the 15,588 signatures needed and that they plan to take them to Madison after a noon rally today at La Crosse City Hall.
It is expected to be the first completed of 19 active recall efforts registered between Feb. 24 and March 2 against 16 senators.
Kapanke, from a district that went for Barack Obama in 2008, is one of the more threatened Republican state Senators in Wisconsin. The Daily Kos poll of the 8 Republican districts eligible for recall showed Kapanke trailing a generic Democrat 55-41.
No paid signature gatherers were used in the campaign, just volunteers, according to local Democrats. Organizers say they collected “over 20,000″ signatures, giving themselves a cushion in case some signatures were thrown out. In Wisconsin, after announcing a recall petition you have 60 days to gather signatures. Democrats are turning in the signatures in the Kapanke recall before the 30-day mark.
What happens now is a 31-day review period to confirm the signatures. Kapanke’s team can file challenges to any signatures, and the state overseer can seek an extension of the process with a judge. You’re not likely to actually see a standalone election for Kapanke; the state wants to combine any recalls into one election date. So despite the early filing, there may be a delay here. The election is supposed to be held six weeks after a recall petition is confirmed. This could include a primary, with a general election four weeks after that, or just a general election if Kapanke has only one challenger.
A Republican local party chairman called the Kapanke recall “a foregone conclusion” and has already set up offices in the area. So we will see at least one recall election in Wisconsin this summer, in all likelihood, and probably more than one.
Democrats need to flip three seats in Wisconsin to win back the state Senate.
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Next up, Ohio.
ANTI-UNION MEASURE BECOMES LAW IN OHIO
“For advocates of working families, the developments surrounding the proposal, known as SB 5, were obviously discouraging, but this is seen as a round-one setback.
“Indeed, opponents of the Republican plan now have 90 days to collect 231,148 signatures from at least half Ohio’s 88 counties.”
LINK.
Frist Wisconsin!
Easy Peasy! Go Wisconsin!
Wishing them all the best in these very valient and necessary efforts. Power to the people. After all, allegedly our govt – whether local, state or fed – is of the people, by the people, for the people. That actually means *everyone,* and NOT just the Elites, like David Koch. Something for all citizens to remember and bear in mind.
On Wisconsin! This is wonderful news!
When I enthusiasically mentioned the movement in Wisconsin to my Teamster father-in-law, I was astounded at his response. Apparantly, he is livid at the union for conceding so much to business that he refuses to participate in any additional organizing. What is going on inside the unions? Is this attitude a fluke?
Like Obama rescuing the national Republican Party, Walker has rescued the state Democratic Party.
I sense a trend here.
It’s too bad it’s the wrong kind of trend.
No, that attitude is not a flake.
There are a number of union folks that feel the same way about unions that so many of us lefists feel about the Democratic Party.
Betrayal.
And IMO, that attitude is not without justification.
Is Daily Kos polling again?
Yeah, what I was told made me angry too, so I get it. No wonder unions have lost so much power over the decades. Perhaps there is a union version of the Blue Dog mucking things up?
Yay!
Bumper sticker suggestion:
RECALL ‘EM ALL
Yes, and like the Democratic Party, it’s been a long process, as it started decades ago.
My father was a union organizer for UFCW (United Food & Commercial Workers) Local 400 and before he retired he was beginning to notice it in various locals. He really became upset in the 90′s (AFTER he had retired) at various specific examples, but never, ever to the point that he stopped supporting unions OR the Democratic Party.
I think had he been around to see the next decade, he would’ve also finally gotten to the point where so many of us.
He was an amazing man, who had genuine care for his fellow man. He risked a great deal going into non-union places trying to organize them, and he would always say it was about helping those poor folks get a better shake out of life, not to increase any power of the union itself.
I miss him.
I suppose Koch will spend whatever it takes to discredit signatures, postpone, delay, tie up in court.
I haven’t been “inside the union” since I retired a few years ago, but there has always been a lot of resentment toward the leadership for selling out, i.e., becoming co-opted by the large salaries and hobnobbing with politicians, etc.
Speaking of Wisconsin, what was this idiot thinking?
I think it’s obvious she wasn’t.
Total Reek, All.
When leadership found out they’d be wined and dined in DeeCee decades ago they became the first members of the veal pen. Trumka can talk the talk but has yet to prove he can walk the walk. Agreeing to contracts without a strike clause negates any leverage a union has over a corporation.
The only union that isn’t a top-down hierarchy is the IWW.
What a lovely post about your dad. Union folks are brave, indeed.
You funny. I snorting.
I’m sensing the good activists of Wisconsin are up for the fight.
Your father-in-law can learn that this is not a union fight- it is a fight for the Common Good.
The Media wants to call it a Union fight but Wisconsin easily shows this is not true. Look into the crowds there are thousands of citizens who have never had a chance to join a union or simply are not Union workers. In fact here in Ohio I often see people holding signs saying: “I’m not in a Union but…”
Farmers drove 51 tractors across the Madison isthmus to protest losing working poor health insurance. They aren’t Union workers!
Students, University professors aren’t Union workers.
Most Americans aren’t protected by a Union and don’t even know what the fellow workers salaries or contracts are!
Cuts in State medicaid programs (like Badgercare in Wisconsin) aren’t about Unions.
Cuts in food stamps are about Unions. Cuts in school lunch programs aren’t about Unions.
Etc. Etc.
Yep. I think the Kochroaches are gonna find out their money won’t help get what they want this time.
Hey, punaise, don’t see your fonts around here much! Glad to see them now. (and LOL)
City slogan:
Why would I go to another region to fight for someone else’s pension when the Union conceded OURS? The union wanted to bus people to rallies.
That was the complaint I heard.
Anyway, it’s nice to hear that there are vicotries in WI.
Judging by the expression on her face, a couple of teabags and a “moran” sign and she could play for the other side.
hi! reduced to lurking mostly! :~)
as you said david, koch sucker money is going to change things up and make this recall more uncomfortable then we think it will be
now that they can spend how ever much they want on whoever sucks koch the best, we are in for corporatism, my new economic term that distinquishes from capitalism and is much more malignant
Yep.
“Founding Members…of the Veal Pen!”
Not something to brag about. ;)
Any time’s a good time for the moran picture.
It’s only a guess on my part as to how widespread his attitude is but I see it as equal to how we feel about Obama. Betrayed. Strategically I think in both cases liberals and progressives will be most effective working at the local and state level. As far as I can tell we have no Federal government, only an implementing instrument for big business.
Good points.
Wisconsin people have been one step ahead of them for awhile now … sounds like they have about 25% more signatures than they need!
Yes. It’s about wages and payment for services, the value of one’s time and commitment. Paul Krugman today nails it in his references to Andrew Mellon and Hooverism. link btw Andrew Mellon was also an open admirer of fascism…
Krugman misses the point. We are OVERPAYING government workers today and moving those jobs to the private sector, where the market decides what a job is worth (not the government and/or its union cronies) will result in savings that can be plowed into more employment. Put another way, one overpaid government worker takes up more than enough salary to pay for 1+ private sector jobs.
congrats Wisconsin, can’t wait to see candidate number two up for recall.
Spare us the free market crap. In a free market GE would be paying taxes for the services it receives(just like the rest of us are required to do). It doesn’t. In a free market people like Bachmann wouldn’t be getting handouts from the government to run her “private” farm or for her husband’s “private” counseling firms. The wheels are coming off the bus as most of us are now more than aware that free market is code for rigged market
How many jobs does ONE overpaid CEO take up?
Answer: More than ALL of the “overpaid” government workers combined.
Great Work People of Wisconsin!
the only good GOPers I know, no longer serve in office.
Gov. Walker is doing wonders for progressives causes! :)
You are spitting in the wind. Even ordinary people are no longer believing that “free” market crap. Ir’s about continuing to try to disempower the people who do the work of this country. And it’s about splitting labor power with this rugged individualism garbage One man or woman with hungry children is no match for GE in negotiating wages.
Fool me once. Fool me twice won’t hunt.
Cheap labor, it’s the
RepublicanCorporatist way.42 responses to a post about recall signature gathering in WI and not a single one is a piece of high-level mathematical analysis by gvandergriff? What is the world coming to?!
Actually, it’s more like 1/3rd more than they need. (20,000 is 25% more than 15,000, but the 5,000 difference is 1/3 of 15,000. Having been through five signature campaigns, I’m an old hand at this.)
I feel we should recall all the Demacrats, That way we can get rid of the UNION thugs, that try to push there bull on the rest of us.
WALKER FOR PRESIDNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fascist way?
Unions are the communist way. look at the fist that you all carry around the same one Stalin used.
sounds right to me. :-)
Soviets had collective bargaining?
Good post.
20,000 is 33.3% more than 15,000.
What is to be gained by turning signatures in early?
There are no recall election scheduled in WI.
I think you probably learned arithmetic in the same school Bobk attended for spelling instruction. Also, your attention lapses before you are able to copy my complete name correctly. Here’s what I posted later in the day:
It sounds like Short Attention Span Theater. It seems amateurish. Everybody has seen horse races in which a jockey misjudges the finish line and loses. Aren’t runners generally taught to run through the finish line? What is to be gained by turning in signatures early? Nobody asked me, but what is lost is momentum. I’m guessing, for example, there won’t be any media stories in Kapanke’s district about the recall for the next 30 days. If signature gatherers had been at libraries and ballparks for the next 30 days, the recall drive would continue to get attention. So what will happen in Kapanke’s district in the next 30 days? Nothing? I also think that no momentum in this 1 district means loss of momentum in all 8 districts combined. There is no upper limit on the number of signatures that can be turned in.
Not too long ago, Miami-Dade County, FL, recalled its Mayor, Carlos Alvarez. The number I heard was “twice” the necessary number of signatures had been gathered. Whether twice was after disqualification of some signatures or before, I can’t say. How many signatures and in what time period, I also can’t say. I don’t believe there was any early submission of signatures.
Hell, in fact, the money may be counterproductive. I expect a lot more people in Wisconsin know about the Koch connections to Americans for Prosperity, the teabaggers, and the Club for Growth than they did two months earlier, and all the Koch-front-funded ads will do is reinforce the knowledge of that connection.
What’s to be gained? Showing how incredibly easy it’s going to be to take back the Wisconsin Senate despite (or perhaps because of) all the money the Koch fronts can spend.
I am laughing. It shows nothing of the sort. No election has been won, not to mention even scheduled.
Have you ever seen a telethon, some kind of televised effort to raise money for charity? I used to see 1 for cerebral palsy every year.
Who ever heard of a telethon going off the air early? “We raised the amount of money that was our goal, so we’re all leaving early. Good night.”
You evidently don’t listen to your local NPR station, cause, yep – lots of them, like my local outfit, state a goal and once met, if early, cease the on air fund raising efforts.
Be afraid George, very afraid. Republican political fortunes are indeed going south.
Stick around. Should be great fun.
Maybe the difference is they’re raising money for themselves, as opposed to buying time on a station to pitch for a charity.
http://www.recalltherepublican8.com/?page_id=246
Of the 8 Republicans, Kapanke had the 6th most estimated number of signatures needed.
Yes, I think it will be very easy to get the unmotivated WI electorate to the polls for a special election at an unusual time of year. 20% !! turnout is expected Tuesday in the state Supreme Ct election.
I’d like to be shown how easy it is to win a WI Supreme Ct seat. Especially, as you’ve stated elsewhere, David Presser had 55% of the vote in the primary, and more than twice the votes of JoAnne Kloppenburg. I believe she is expected to benefit from local elections on Tuesday in Milwaukee and Madison.
If they can’t win the Sup Ct seat, Dems had better forget about recalling Walker and should probably go back to writing weepy letters about how sincerely disappointed they are in Walker.
Marxist Democrat Cringes As Russian Immigrants Compare Communism to…Democrats! | RedState
http://www.redstate.com
There is just no way to describe this without a smirk and a chuckle. When you read how some of New York’s Russian immigrants (who know Soviet-style Communism
The Koch money spent on elections is recycling through the machines of their cohorts…they won’t lose money- they are spreading it through their power system. While it will not change enlightened voters minds or convince “undecided” voters: it will solidify the fascist business base with financial and ideological allegiance. Heavy-handed and excessive as it probably will be it will enrage many people.
I bet advertising firms in Wisconsin will not be used- I would certainly want to know if there are Wisconsin firms choosing to work for them. This is a time for business to business boycotts, simply refusing to take on certain clients.
Lets just say that the Dem. get enough signitures to recall the Repubican Sen? And what happens if the Republicans win the next election again? Are they going to keep recalling until there are no Republicans left in the state? I keep hearing about Madison and Mil. what about the rest of the state there are alot more Repubicans then Demacrats.
You are not keeping up. Citizens throughout the state rally against this- Green Bay, Duluth, La Crosse….
There are still alot more Republicans then Demacrats.Majority of small towns and counties are Republican and have know problem with this bill.So why should all these other counties give in to the few.
My father as did his father both served in Unions as did I, and I am in full suport of Walkers bill. we worked for everything we have and didnt take free handouts from anyone we paid for our own insurence and health care. and we did it on our own. when i see people taking food stamps and still drinking and smoking they should be stripped of those food stamps. I have NO simpathy for people who dont make any effort to improve there lives. Inner city people choose to live there and they complain, well then move is what I say. No more hand outs for anyone.