Greg Sargent reports that the Democratic party in Wisconsin has almost half the signatures needed to force recall elections for eight Wisconsin State Senators:
In another sign that the Wisconsin GOP’s quick passage of the bill to roll back bargaining rights is only causing the fight to escalate, Dems have now collected over 45 percent of the signatures necessary to hold recall elections for eight GOP state senators, the Wisconsin Democratic Party tells me.
Dems have now collected over 56,000 signatures supporting the recall drives, according to party spokesman Graeme Zielinski, after another surge in organizing activity over the weekend. That’s up from rougly 14,000 after last weekend. This means Dems are well ahead of schedule: In each targeted district, Dems need to amass the required signatures — 25 percent of the number who voted in the last gubernatorial election — by a deadline of 60 days after first filing for recalls, which happened nearly two weeks ago.
I don’t know anything about how hard it will be to get the remaining signatures needed, but let’s be clear, in layman’s terms, flipping the Senate in Wisconsin would be big news.
Republicans overreached badly in Wisconsin and still haven’t figure out how bad a position they’ve put themselves in. The opinion polls do not accurately measure how good an issue this is for Democrats, because this isn’t just about what a majority wants, it’s about millions of people who will become one issue voters if they feel their bargaining rights will be taken away.
If Wisconsin stays in the national spotlight for the next few months, it shifts the entire narrative, it moves it from angry Real Murkin teabaggers to angry middle-class workers. The media is slow to catch on, they still think the public hates unions. But that’s a good thing here, as long as Scott Walker and his idiot friends are reading Politico stories about strapping young bucks buying T-bone steaks with their union wages, they’ll keep heading over the cliff.
You can give to the recall effort here and, please, if you live in Wisconsin, even if you’ve never gotten involved with grassroots politics before, get involved now. Opportunities like this don’t come around very often.
cthulhu
dKos polled the WI districts over the weekend so by late tonight/tomorrow, that info should be available.
Omnes Omnibus
This is the kind of thing currently going on in the WI Senate.
General Stuck
So proud of WI dems.
Martin
Well, they come around every day, but this time you got people to actually pay attention. Remember, we recalled a Governor presumably over a $100ish raise in the annual car registration fees.
gbear
@Omnes Omnibus: How can they even do that? They’re taking away the representation of voters in the democratic senators districts. It’s an absolutely insane move. How can it possibly be legal? How can they not see (or care) how incredibly petty they look?
Jrod the Cookie Thief
@Omnes Omnibus: So now the Republicans in Wisconsin have simply declared that Democratic votes won’t be counted? What. The. Fuck.
How long before they just outlaw the Democratic party altogether? They might as well, at this point. It’s probably the only way they can avoid turning Wisconsin bright blue for a generation.
tulip
Funny anecdote regarding the recall effort (take with a grain of salt) a friend of mine lives in WI and he was telling me how there’s also an effort to recall the 14 Democrats. So supposedly there was a guy proudly waving the petition saying he’s gaining support in the recall of the dems and they showed the petition on tv. And the first signature was signed by Micky Mouse and had Scott Walker’s address.
I asked for a link and he didn’t have it, but we didn’t know if the petition holder was an idiot or if it was just a prank to get airtime.
I’m going with he’s an idiot, but I’m letting my bias show.
Mike Kay (True Grit)
/fixed
Nick
@cthulhu:
They e-mailed them to people who signed up already…one Republican is getting his ass kicked, two others are trailing by moderate margins, two others are tied, one Republican is up by less than 10, and two others are way way ahead.
Mike Kay (True Grit)
I was speaking to a union organizer and he told me he thanks Jesus that Obama stayed out of Wisconsin.
They way he put it, 25% of voters reject Global Warming solely because they hate Al Gore with a passion. Had Obama got involved, a good portion of non-union types would taken Walker’s side just to spite the president.
jrg
Not sure I buy it. The ‘baggers got airplay because they hate Obama so much. There’s no one similar on the right who has such prominence. Plus, they are shit-nuts: death panels, “keep the government out of my medicare”, assault rifles, watering the tree of liberty, etc, etc.
All the Wisconsin protesters want is a fair wage for a day’s pay. How interesting is that, really?
The “narrative” isn’t some well-thought-out national dialogue that’s reflected in the media, it’s a circus.
hhex65
spitballing here…56,000+ Union thugs and Acorn operatives signed on to help overturn the will of the people? let me know if I’ve correctly predicted the narrative…
Omnes Omnibus
@gbear:
@Jrod the Cookie Thief:
I don’t know why they think it is a good idea. I have to think it looks petty, is undemocratic, and is illegal. it is weird; they put a lot of effort into getting the Dems back and yet they count their votes. Seems dishonest in a way.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike Kay (True Grit): To say nothing of the national media reaction. “Is the president over-reaching by intervening in the Wisconsin budget debate about excessive pensions for government employees?”
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: They wanted the Dems back for only one reason: quorum. I think they should all leave again until their full voting rights are restored.
gbear
@Jrod the Cookie Thief: The fact that Fitzgerald has done this just goes to prove that he is the leading asshole in the state.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Omnes Omnibus: Damn. The broader public rarely reacts to political events they way I do and think they should, but that sure as shit sounds like trying to dig your way out of a hole.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Thing is, at least as I see it, if they can’t vote and speak, they aren’t there. Ergo no quorum.
Dustin
@Omnes Omnibus: Unfortunately that’s not how the Senate’ll work, I guarantee it. The only way they’ll be able to prevent Fitzgerald from railroading right over them is to leave again.
The fucker’s interpreting the rules as he sees fit and making up more than a few as he goes along, so until a judge slaps him upside the head (which I doubt’ll happen) he’ll treat the place like his own personal fraternity.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: I agree with your interpretation, but a quorum only requires presence. I’m sure if they had stayed in state Fitzgerald would have just taped their mouths shut. And last time I checked you do not lose your voting rights by being in contempt.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dustin: We can take his majority away. This, of course, segues perfectly back to the main topic of the post. Please do give, if you can, to the recall effort. We can use the help.
Omnes Omnibus
The other thing that really amazes me about all the machinations in the state is the sheer number of bridges these pigfuckers are willing to burn. They have work in the same chamber for a few years, do they think they will never need a Democrat for anything? Any good will and trust that existed is gone, daddy, gone (as Gordon Gano would say).
kideni
Fitzgerald’s latest tantrum seems to only apply to committee votes, not votes as a body, although who knows what he’ll do tomorrow. It’s so obvious that he’s insanely jealous of the reception the Fab 14 got on Saturday, and the fact that the protesters have been praising them the whole time. He also sent out a press release on Saturday to sneer at them.
El Cid
I don’t see why elected Democrats are ever allowed to vote. They take all our money and do all the spendin’. And they don’t like our country neither. Somebody’s gotta do somethin’ finally.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Agreed. Time for the Wisc. 14 to play Where’s Waldo again. And, might I say, you go, Wisc. Dems!
@El Cid: Man. You do that just a bit too well.
@RalfW: So, Walker listened to/read the echo chamber/friendly reports and tripped over his own feet. Figures.
And, TYWP for once.
ETA: Oh, Edit button. How I’ve missed you.
kideni
@Omnes Omnibus: No kidding. The Dem. senators talked about that a little bit at their press conference on Saturday, and they didn’t sound too hopeful about interparty cooperation under the current leadership (I think only Carper, Erpenbach, and Taylor were asked about it, although Vinehout also talked about how “moderate” is a bad word on the Repub. side).
RalfW
While noshing this eve, I just finally read this Jan 17 New Yorker piece by James Surowiecki where he details how much Americans hate unions, and I couldn’t help but think that Scott Walker read this just before miscalculating so badly.
The wonderful thing about media people is how they generally call trends right about the moment they end.
Omnes Omnibus
@kideni: I think the FitzWalker people really believed that they had been elected to do the whole teabagger thing, and that they are truly shocked by the reaction they caused.
Yutsano
@kideni:
I didn’t interpret the article like that, but really it’s a distinction without a difference. You can’t deny a vote on the lower committee level then grant it in full session like that. And suspension of vote is supposed to be by the will of the body not the chair of the floor. Fitzgerald is trying to be his own little Napoleon here.
El Cid
@asiangrrlMN: Contextual overdose. Teaches you a thing or two.
Cain
@Omnes Omnibus:
Nah, basically it would be the same thing Rumsfeld said about Iraq, “Freedom is messy..”
cain
kideni
@Yutsano: He’s quite the tyrant and to some extent I agree that disallowing votes in committee is essentially disallowing votes. Here’s the text of Fitzgerald’s memo: “Please note that all 14 Democrat senators are still in contempt of the Senate. Therefore, when taking roll call votes on amendments and bills during executive sessions, Senate Democrats’ votes will not be reflected in the Records of Committee Proceedings or the Senate Journal. They are free to attend hearings, listen to testimony, debate legislation, introduce amendments, and cast votes to signal their support/opposition, but those votes will not count, and will not be recorded.”
But really, who are we to say what Fitzy can and can’t do? Apparently he has unlimited power. This is now FitzWalkerstan!
burnspbesq
Meanwhile, the timing of this report from a bigass DC law firm hired to investigate allegations of crony capitalism at CALPERS, couldn’t possibly be worse. Oh well …
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-calpers-probe-20110315,0,126433.story
asiangrrlMN
@El Cid: I know. But your mimicry is VERY good. I may have to use you as my speech writer in my run for the Republican primaries.
@kideni: Fricking Scott Fitzgerald. How does he work again?
Yutsano
@kideni:
That does not seem limited to just committee meetings. Fitz is basically telling them to sit down and shut up. But don’t you DARE run off again and deny me my quorum! What. A. Dickhead.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: No kidding. For a guy from a party that loves them some small government, he’s sure acting like a tyrant.
And I’m outie. Night all.
Pooh
Speaking of awesome anecdote that was just passed along to me. Apparently, the canvassers went to one of the REP Senator’s houses and his wife answered the door. She told them he no longer lived there, and was instead shacking up with his girlfriend at such and such an address. But she’d be glad to sign the petition.
AxelFoley
@Mike Kay (True Grit):
Oh, but you can’t tell the Profession Left that. According to them, Obama should be right in the WI state capitol building with the protesters.
James E Powell
Obama getting involved would be a terrible idea.
What about others from outside Wisconsin? Does this have to be a locals-only thing? Walker and the Republican senators will be defended with national money and national press/media.
opie_jeanne
@Martin: Martin, did you hear from your dad? I hope he was ok.
pablo
A poster for half term Governor poster children.
Triassic Sands
Recalling the senators would have great legislative significance, but tossing Walker headfirst into the dumpster of history would send the strongest possible message to all the Right Wing Thugs out there.
I read that they had to wait a year before recalling Walker would be possible. It would be wonderful if Wisconsinites could replace eight Republican senators and then follow that up by removing Walker and replacing him with…Russ Feingold.
kansi
@Triassic Sands: Makes my heart flutter…
kay
I think the opposition is valuable in and of itself, regardless of whether they win or lose.
It’s the one and only push-back to the idea that poor, lower middle class and middle class should take the entire hit for the finance sector meltdown.
I don’t think “change tax policy!” is an effective rallying cry, for liberals. It might be great policy, but no one is going to hit the streets around that.
What’s amusing to me is how weak the Tea party counter-protests have been in Ohio. To listen to national media, I would have thought Tea party organizers could collect thousands at any event. They’re turning out single digits, like, EIGHT, at the counter-protests.
ornery curmudgeon
“The media is slow to catch on, they still think the public hates unions.”
That’s sweet, DougJ. You of course are the slowest of media to catch on, but you want the world the way you want the world, I suppose. No one’s going to get YOU to see the corporate media is bought and therefore acts with an agenda quite apart from caring, much less ‘thinking’ about reflecting what the public wants.
And no one’s going to get YOU to understand and relay that, for whatever reason. Bleh.
NonyNony
This is not true. In fact it’s become increasingly clear to me over the years that journalists hate unions with the white hot passion of a thousand firey suns. I have no idea why, but every journalist I’ve known personally hates unions, and it’s become quite clear with the coverage of what’s been going on in Ohio that it isn’t that the journalists think that the public hates unions, it’s that the journalists hate unions and are projecting their own beliefs back onto the public.
I used to think that this came from a higher level directive – that the station owners and newspaper owners were pushing editorial to have an anti-union slant. I don’t think so anymore. I’m fairly convinced that the journalists themselves have an anti-union slant and they don’t need any pushing at all to report that way. Even the fucking NPR reporters in Ohio can’t seem to do a story about unions without sneering about the whole thing and slanting their reporting slightly to the anti-union side.
I really wish I knew why even the journalists at the bottom of the pole seem to hate unions so much.
Barry
@Omnes Omnibus: “The other thing that really amazes me about all the machinations in the state is the sheer number of bridges these pigfuckers are willing to burn. They have work in the same chamber for a few years, do they think they will never need a Democrat for anything? Any good will and trust that existed is gone, daddy, gone (as Gordon Gano would say).”
They’re making the standard GOP assumption that if they burn their bridges, the Dem politicians will spend Dem money to rebuild them, so that the GOP politicians can cross the bridges to do more damage.
The question in WI is: have the Dem Senators gotten to the point where they realize that their own careers are in jeopardy? The way that the GOP is working now, the Dem Senators simply don’t matter (and forget the ‘fiscal bill’ requirement for a quorum; the GOP has already shown that they’ll simply lie about that).
A Senator with zero voting power has got a career measured in months to the next election.
Barry
@NonyNony: “NonyNony – March 15, 2011 | 8:41 am · Link
The media is slow to catch on, they still think the public hates unions.
This is not true. In fact it’s become increasingly clear to me over the years that journalists hate unions with the white hot passion of a thousand firey suns. I have no idea why, but every journalist I’ve known personally hates unions, and it’s become quite clear with the coverage of what’s been going on in Ohio that it isn’t that the journalists think that the public hates unions, it’s that the journalists hate unions and are projecting their own beliefs back onto the public.”
I think that it’s the classic American ‘crabs in a bucket’ syndrome. 99% of US journalists have been screwed, blued and tattooed very thoroughly for the past twenty years, and the survivors have insane resentment of anybody who’s not had their pay and benefits cut, and who has some assurance of where they will work next year.
kay
@NonyNony:
I really think it’s because unions change the power relationship to some extent. They really do take power from media and politicians and policymakers and add another actor.
I read recently that 26% of Ohio voter households are union households. The national number doesn’t reflect the reality in these midwestern states. 26% is a substantial voting bloc. That’s about equal to the base of the Republican Party.
I just don’t think media want to let another group into the media/politician circle ‘o influence, which feels more and more like an exclusive club to me, the older I get. Sort of a rowdy, uncouth group, at that :)
BrianD
What I’m doing to collect signatures from my remote location here in Illinois is circulating a petition to all my WI friends and relatives via snail mail.
You can download the recall papers at recalltherepublican8.com, and congress.org is a great way to find out if your WI people live in the district of a recallable senator.
Barry
@kay: The elites (which includes the people who own the MSM) strongly desire a world in which the ordinary people’s organizational abilities are zero, with the exception of some groups (such as right-wing protestantism) which are allies of the elites.
Unions and union sentiment is a prime target.
kay
@Barry:
The Ohio newspaper I read had their own labor troubles two years ago. They used the paper to run full-page ads against their own employees. They used the editorial page to promote the broader idea that unions are responsible for all our economic ills.
I just don’t think they’re an impartial arbiter on labor matters. I think it’s naive to believe the paper’s owners are going to handle this issue fairly.
So that’s part of my (understandable, I think) distrust.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Mike Kay (True Grit): I don’t know if you post at GOS, but it would be fun to see a post about that just to watch the comments.
Lori
I am a Wisconsin voter and I want to sign a recall petition. However, the Wisconsin Democratic Party website http://www.wisdems.org/ doesn’t tell me how, and Googling I don’t find how to sign a petition either. The Dem website only asks for funds, or for signing up for *general* Dem Party mailings and funding requests… I don’t want junk mail, junk email, or to get bothered with phone calls – but I do want to support the recall effort with my signature! Anybody know how I can do it? I emailed the State Chair from the Contact Us part of the website, but no response. (In the email, in addition to asking for the sign-on info, I recommended they add that info to the website.)
BrianD
@Lori: Go to recalltherepublican8.com and you can download your own petition. Make sure you carefully follow the instructions, and there’ll be an address for you to mail it to.
lllphd
@Mike Kay (True Grit):
thanks for this input. fwiw, this is something i tried to relate back a week and more ago.
i’m tellin’ ya, obama most often knows what he’s doing, complain all you want. if you think thru the likely consequences of his getting involved, especially given the faux media, it was very clear he should keep quiet. (and the added complimentary message to the folks of WI is that he feels pretty confident in their ability to prevail there without his help.)
just like he did on the gun situation right after tucson; he’s now, very gently and quietly, making oochy moves toward some real reforms. not comin’ out all gangbusters the way bush did with sciavo and everything else he ruled, but studying the terrain, recognizing the limits of success within his desired route and taking stock toward an alternative approach that bodes better.
lllphd
@Omnes Omnibus:
the problem with this is that the legislation they just pulled off may well be all they care about, really.
kinda depressing to think about, but there it is. they’ve so thoroughly hamstrung both the public employee union process and the legislation process, they can sell off public works to their private donors, and with as long as they have a majority, they can set the agenda. hell, even without the majority they can still get their way by not cooperating with the majority (see US Congress, Republicans).
they’ve created their perfect little world.
Lori
@BrianD:
Thanks for sharing the info.
Their website could majorly use some simple improvements, which would make a big difference to getting the number of signatures needed. If you have any connection to folks in charge there, *please* pass my following comments on… I found the link ‘Download the Recall Papers’ (in small font, only one of many links on the page), had to give them my email address to download the document (instead of just a link to a PDF… now I’m probably going to get junk email from them since they’ve got my email address as the price for me to get to the recall petition document). Even though I entered my zip code along with my email address before their website would allow me to see the petitions, it didn’t tell me *which* of the petitions applied to the area I live. So I’m going to do more Googling, to try to figure which of the 8 petitions I should print out. But that website could make a couple changes that would greatly increase effectiveness of getting qualified signatures:
1. don’t require submitting an email address, 2. offer a lookup where you enter your zipcode, it returns the state senator name
lllphd
@kideni:
surely this punitive measure will not hold up in the courts. or much of the other shenanigans walker’s pulled in the past month.
we’ll see; all the more incentive to get that dem in the supreme court election on april 5
Lori
Here’s how to find Wisconsin state senators per address, city, or zip code:
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx
lllphd
@kideni:
hm. reading the text again raises this question: how is it they are still in contempt? i thought they were in contempt because they left the state. therefore, what’s up with that?
lllphd
@kideni:
FITZKOCHWALKERSTAN!
kay
@NonyNony:
Read this and BASH YOUR HEAD against a wall.
Kasich would lose to Strickland by 15 points, today.
They’re 65-35 against his stance on unions.
Now, tell me. What the hell were they thinking in November?
lllphd
@Lori:
i suspect you need to go directly to the dem party reps IN YOUR VOTING DISCTRICT. the petition is yoked to the district voting numbers.
but surely just calling the WI dems office there someone could actually look it upf for you. i don’t know what town you’re in, but i googled madison dems and got a list of their officers, emailed one of them and got an answer within 12 hours. in fact, it was graeme zielinski, the spokesperson doug listed in his post.
hope this helps; don’t give up!!
James E Powell
@lllphd:
This works only so long as the people of Wisconsin go along with it. So long as the white working class and retirees believe that their interests are aligned with the corporate ruling class, the ruling class will win.
Did Walker and the Republicans overreach to a point where the scales fell from these voters’ eyes? We will soon find out.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@kay: That’s a question I’d love to hear the answer to. Folks like us knew what a dickweed he was, but somehow so many just didn’t catch on. Sigh.
patrick
recall efforts are starting to gear up here in MI, too….lots of buyer remorse with Snyder….
don’t blame me, I voted for Virg!