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Another milestone has been hit by United Wisconsin, the group organizing the recall of Scott Walker. Though there was some concern that enthusiasm for the recall would be dampened this far out from Walker’s initial sin of assaulting worker’s rights, that cannot be seen in the number of people willing to sign a petition to oust him prematurely. In the first 12 days of the recall – and organizers have 60 days to gather the required signatures – over 300,000 signatures have been gathered, over half of what is needed to trigger a recall. Some cushion over the 540,208 threshold is advisable – organizers want to get between 600,000 and 700,000 in all – but this is a hell of a start less than two weeks in.
“Scott Walker has taken to the airwaves, supported by millions in corporate cash, to defend his record of job loss and full-scale assault on Wisconsin’s institutions and values,” United Wisconsin Executive Director Meagan Mahaffey said in a statement. “But all over Wisconsin, the people are seeing through Walker’s deceptions and are moving to take our state back.” [...]
No Democrat has stepped forward yet to announce a challenge to Walker in a potential recall race. Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate said the party won’t put a candidate forward until early 2012 in order to keep the fight focused as a referendum on Walker.
“The burden is on him here,” Tate told the Associated Press.
The fact that Walker has already started running TV ads defending his record is an indicator that he fully expects a recall. He may not have expected one this swiftly.
There are parallel efforts to recall four Republican state Senators, but no information has yet been released about those efforts.
Looking ahead to the recall, which at this rate would happen in the spring, take a look at the unemployment rate in Wisconsin. It was at 7.4%, below the national average, when Walker was inaugurated in January of 2011. It’s at 7.7% now. Walker ran on a pledge to create jobs in Wisconsin. That hasn’t materialized, and this could have an impact behind the scenes of the recall election. Democrats will surely run a campaign on attacks on worker’s rights and inequality, with Walker trying to defend his record. But at the base level of jobs, the biggest issue facing the country, Walker doesn’t have much of a record to run on. That’s a key backgrounder to the recall effort.
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Thanks for putting this information up David.
Hi David,
I am not sure if you will write about hank tipping off hedge funds prior to fannie and freddie collapse as per article in bloomberg, but if you here is an interesting take on it. well worth the read
http://thedailybell.com/3298/The-Real-Reason-Bloomberg-Sued-to-Open-Up-Fed-Records
Heh heh heh.
This is going to cost the Koch’s a bundle of money, win or lose.
We’ll get our economic stimulus if we have to recall every batshit crazy GOPer to do it! The TV ad buys alone are probably generating more jobs in Wi than anything Walker or Obama has done.
Maybe we’re on to something here…how much would the 1% spend to defend to politicians who are financing them and/or keeping them out of jail? More than they’d pay in taxes, I’d bet.
Boxturtle (Kasich has until 2014 here in Ohio. And there’s a lot of voter regret over his election)
On Wisconsin! Great to hear. Thanks for the post, DDay.
Citizens consistently need to keep their eyes on the prize; keep putting on foot in front of the other; and keep on trucking. It’s not going to be quick and easy to gain back the rights of the 99%, but it is feasible and do-able.
Power to the people!
Talk about yer understatements!
He’s somewhere around 35% approval in the polls, and I think this (and the Issue 2 smackdown) is causing him to at least act like a human being vs. the corporbot he was programmed by Wall Street to be once in office.
Excellent advice.
It’s what happened with the Civil Rights Movement and the Anti-Viet Nam War movement. Neither was popular at the time, and there was a ton of push-back on both movements from lots of quarters. Yet both ended up being successful (at least to a degree) because of citizen persistence. And as we know, there was a LOT of violence, including deaths, perpetrated against the protestors, more’s the pity.
What we are seeing now is, in some ways, the same old, same old. The PTB will *always* push-back against such movements for the rights of the disinfranchised. Count on it. But the movement can be won.
We’re gonna defeat this bastard!
If you are in Madison, please stop by the capitol rotunda M-Thurs from 12-1 for a solidarity sing along – quite an event.
There is another sing along at 4:30 on Thursdays on the capitol square (Mifflin and State) and the Friday sing along has been outside at noon on that corner as well.
It is so critical to send a strong message to repugs that elected politicians work for us, not the other way around!
scotty walker had to admit in front of congress (under direct pointed questioning) that he did not run nor campaign on the policies he has implemented – nothing less than economic terrorism.
The repugs are dangerous, they run on whatever market research shows they can “catapult” with propaganda, but actually have no intention of doing anything but destroying our democracy.
And the tool they use here (and around the world) to undermine the will of the people is all based on terrorism.
Yes, but please don’t fool yourself. It wasn’t there money in the first place!
They inherited a series of effective monopolies from rich daddy and then used the billions and billions to attack the rest of us.
The money they “invest” in walker and the likes represents a tiny tiny percentage of their daily revenue.
They are actually attacking working Americans with the hard-earned cash that WE give them.
They know that diverting a relatively small portion of their endless revenue stream towards economic terrorism pays them HUGE dividends in return.
IMHO, we will not see meaningful change until we organize economic action against the business interests that undermine our democracy.
Please don’t fool yourself – WALKER IS NOT REALLY THE PROBLEM HERE and there is an endless supply of political hacks that are willing, ready, and able to pick up where scotty leaves off.
My prediction: repugs will realize and accept that walker is fully toxic and primary him – their best “defense” will be to throw him under the bus, make the recall all about him instead of the issues, and trot out a new liar to take his place.
And please don’t kid yourself, the kochs will reward scotty generously for the “work” that he has “accomplished” taking us a few more steps towards one-party rule and total fascism.
If there is a recall election, the dims had better have one or two observers at the vote count in each district. Twice now, there were the ‘found’ votes that put the repug candidates votes over the automatic recall amount. Also, the votes had better be put into a secure location to make sure that there are no tweaks after the counters go home. If possible, each machine needs to be tested to see that it is not easily hackable. In other words, if the dims don’t try to control for cheating, then they are just singing into the wind.
Hip hip, Horray!!
BOth times, iirc, in Waukesha County. By a woman who keeps all the election records on her own computer, or something crazy like that.
UPDATE: From Ruth Conniff at the Progressive Magazine today. Expanding a bit on the makeup of the petition supporters.