It’s election time! Today will mark the third time in history that a US state heads to the polls to with the potential of firing a sitting governor. The saga began with Governor Scott Walker’s controversial budget repair bill in 2011, and will come to an end today (well, at least symbolically). In case you’re rusty on who’s running and why, here’s the skinny on the two major-party candidates.
» So who’s gonna win? It’s extremely close right now. Public Policy Polling’s most recent poll shows Walker ahead by three points, but Barrett closing the gap and within the margin of error. So it could go either way; it all depends on voter turnout. (So vote!) We’ll be covering it tonight, folks — we’ll keep you posted. (photo via WisPolitics.com, from last week’s debate)
After The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel endorsed Scott Walker in his recall campaign, readers responded in kind, filling up an entire page with letters criticizing the decision. You can read them here. (ht Patch’s Recall Central, via Arena of the Unwell)
Wisconsin Democrats are backing off charges of vote-tampering in the 8th Senate District recall, less than 1-1/2 hours after they leveled those accusations.
“Though we believe that Sandy Pasch was able to battle Alberta Darling to a virtual tie, on her turf, we will not pursue questions of irregularities. Those heat-of-the-moment statements came in light of the uncertainties that arose from a recent election, known too well,” state party Chairman Mike Tate said in a prepared statement early Wednesday morning.
Did Democrats get a little too emotional over this loss? Because the video (shot just hours before this statement) is straight-up rageathon.
Over the last 90 days, the Digg...
#FMMDI (at 30 Rockefeller Plaza)
Thanks. I guess my thoughts are as follows:
1. I think...
Two Months Ago I set out to interview the principal cast...
This guy’s name is Gen. Keith...
“I love the one non-NSA story that made it on the...
Democratic Party of Wisconsin Spokesman Graeme Zielinski accuses Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus of ‘sitting on’ Waukesha County results in 8th Senate District recall race.
This is the 2nd time Kathy Nickolaus has been accused of tampering with votes.
Totally had a feeling when we heard it was that race that this particular woman would be involved somehow. As you might guess, the Democrat didn’t win. EDIT: Bizarrely, Democrats backed off this stance almost immediately after we posted this.
Wisconsin Republicans’ quixotic attempt to recall Democratic state senators has gotten off to a bad start: State Sen. David Hansen was easily re-elected in today’s recall election, defeating his opponent by a 2:1 margin. Hansen is the first of nine WI State Senators facing recall attempts (three Democrats, six Republicans).The recalls were first initiated by Democrats hoping to punish Republicans for supporting Scott Walker’s anti-union bill last Spring. Republicans, out of a combination of boredom and petulance, responded by launching their own recall petitions against Democrats who opposed the bill. source
Reader abandonedsandals sends along this note:
“Wisconsin board approves recalls against GOP, but not Dems” — I work part-time for one of the towns in SE Wisconsin, so I’ve been keeping an eye on this. I can tell you that there’s been efforts by those of us against Walker to screw up the petitions to recall the Democrats. Nothing formally organized, but we figure the more invalid signatures, the better it is for us. So for example, I actually live in Illinois, and the Kenosha area gets a lot of Illinois visitors (people who work up here like me, belong to organizations, and there are a lot of family members spread over the two states. You just get an Illinois resident to sign the petition — using their IL street address and a Wisconsin city & state. I’ve also heard at least one rumor of getting convicts to sign!
Like I mentioned, I never saw any organized effort to screw up the petitions, just a lot of very angry Anti-Walker people talking about good ways to do it. So I suspect there will be a lot of those names being thrown out.
(I’m old enough to remember Dick Tuck — so I love this.)
A fascinating footnote to our piece from earlier.
Heads up, Scott: A new poll shows progressive hero Russ Feingold neck-and-neck with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in a hypothetical recall election. This is less than a year after Feingold lost re-election to the Senate by five points to a political novice. Yeah, yeah, we know: this doesn’t mean much, as Feingold hasn’t expressed any interest in running and Walker is nine months away from even being eligible for a recall. But we can dream, right? source
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