Wisconsin Democrats are gearing up to toll the bell for Gov. Scott Walker’s recall effort. Here’s what they are up against:
Wisconsin’s recall law requires that officials have held office for at least one year before being recalled. Since Walker was just elected in 2010, that means the petitions cannot be turned in until early January 2012. In addition, the Dems will have a lot of leg-work to do, if they hope to recall him.
In order to initiate a recall, signatures of at least 25 percent of the number of voters in the previous gubernatorial election must be collected in a 60-day window, within a relevant district (statewide, in this case). Calculated from the 2010 election results, this means the Dems will need to collect 540,206 signatures — more than 9,000 signatures a day, statewide — plus some significant buffer that campaigns routinely collect in order to protect against signatures being disqualified over one imperfection or another.
To wind up the spring for the recall, Wisconsin Dems want to raise $540,206 by Nov. 15th in order to kick off the petition drive then. Good luck to them, and I’ll be following the efforts, well, like clockwork.
Handy puns aside, putting Walker out of a job is something that a number of liberals outside Wisconsin should be aiming for. Outside of John Kasich, no Republican governor has been more relentlessly anti-middle class and pro top 1% with continuous efforts to remove collective bargaining rights, remove voting rights, and remove accountability. As in Ohio, there are efforts to fight back by putting the agenda before the people. In Wisconsin, that means putting Walker himself up for another vote.
Good for Wisconsin Dems. They understand the keys to all this GOP power lie in statehouses across the country.
[UPDATE] You can learn more about helping this effort at wisdems.org.
arguingwithsignposts
Do they have a web site with a donate button you could link to?
agrippa
Bravo!
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Fucking Scarborough just asked John Carlos if he sometimes wished he hadn’t raised his fist on the medal stand at the 68 Olympics. What a dick.
Omnes Omnibus
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): I have always thought it was awesome that they did that. Of course, I am not Joe Scar.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
Especially considering that Carlos’ book is about, you know, raising his fist on the medal stand at the 68 Olympics.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Omnes Omnibus: I did not realize that Peter Norman from Australia, the silver medalist, wore a badge in support of Smith and Carlos.
Omnes Omnibus
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): I did not know that either. That is cool.
Paul in KY
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Mr. Norman died a couple of years ago. He always said he was proud to stand up there with John & Tommy.
Cat Lady
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
Who could have predicted that a Republican cracker from Georgia wouldn’t have been all black power fuck yeah! and that Carlos may not have considered all the white crackers’ fee fees when he did what he did. It must be nice to be an overpaid clueless white self-aggrandizing fuckwit.
arguingwithsignposts
@Cat Lady: Joey Scar
is from Floridawas born in Georgia, but represented and lives in Florida.Apparently it is. There’s are whole cable networks full of them.
ETA: edited for accuracy.
Cat Lady
@arguingwithsignposts:
He was a little kid in Georgia when this was going on, so that’s what I referred to – I can imagine what he heard in his house. I’m going to take a wild guess that it wasn’t “right on brotha!”.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I know they’re in a hurry to get rid of Walker, but would it not have been better to have waited until after the holidays? I know that’s in the middle of winter, but it’s at least not in the middle of winter during the holidays.
Ash Can
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Did Carlos tell him to go eat shit and bark at the moon?
Anya
@Omnes Omnibus:
Me too! My dad had (still has) a poster of Mr Tommie Smith and Mr. John Carlos BLACK POWER salute in his office. He told me the significance of that, I think when I was 7-years old. I think took it to school for show and tell.
Joe Scarborough is a tool. I wonder why anyone watches him and the kiss ass brainless pundit-hack buddies.
Anya
One problem about the recall is that no one has stepped forward to run against Walker, so that there’s no excitement about a possible alternative–as there might be, for example, if Feingold had agreed to run.
piratedan
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I can understand why the folks in Wisconsin wouldn’t want that fuckstick in office one day longer than necessary. He’s a ruthless lackey for the Koch Brothers agenda riding the wingnut gravy train. They could probably replace him with a roomba and get better representation. Naturally, finding a real candidate is going to be problematic, lets hope that someone steps up soon.
kideni
Between the appalling legislation of the past year and the ongoing FBI investigations of Walker and his cronies, I suspect the various groups thought that they should strike while the iron was hot. With any luck, the investigations will be ever closer to Walker by the time the campaign is coming to a close, so voters will have fresh knowledge of what a lying sleazebag he is. Also, a concern had initially been that a fall/winter signature drive would mean the recall election would occur on the same day as the Republican primary, since the election board likes to consolidate things when they can, but the other day an election official said that there would be no way to have it all on the same day.
I suspect the Democrats have people ready to step in when the time is right to announce. My impression from the senate recalls was that they had people ready to go well in advance in most of the districts. There have been several names bandied about; a lot of sources mention Ron Kind (Congressional rep in western Wisconsin), David Obey (retired rep from northern Wisconsin), Jon Erpenbach (the Fab 14 senator who was on all the national shows back in the day), Peter Barca (assembly minority leader from Kenosha), and Kathleen Falk (former Dane County Exec [that’s where Madison is]). Initially, Walker’s 2010 opponent, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett, was brought up a lot, but lately I haven’t heard much about whether he’s interested.
It sounds as though Falk has specifically indicated that she’s considering it, but I kinda hope she doesn’t. She’s run for statewide office twice (for gov and attorney general) and not done well, and she’s just not a great campaigner. It’s too bad, because she did a good job as county exec (unlike some county execs who happen to be governor), and she’d probably be a really good governor. Kind is too milquetoast in Congress for my liking. Obey has been barnstorming around the state for the past year making fiery speeches against Ayn Rand-style politics, but he’s in his 70s. Erpenbach would be great, but there’s enough resentment around the state about the 14 leaving the state that the attack ads would write themselves. Barca’s been fantastic this whole time and seems to really know his stuff, so I’m hoping he decides to get in. In any case, I think a primary would be good thing.
Cheap Jim
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Did you ever notice that they raised opposite fists? That’s because they forgot their own gloves and Norman lent them his.
feebog
They will get the signatures. I had the opportunity to talk to a Wisconson State Rep in March and a high ranking Dem Pol in May. Their main concern was whether momentum could be maintained for a year. Thus the rush to get this going. That and the fact that Walker and the Republican legislature are still pushing the envelope. Remember that they just went through nine special elections. They have the info on all the folks who signed petetions, or in the case of the Democratic recalls, those who voted. Throwing Walker out of office would entirely change the political narrative in this country. We need to support this challenge in any way possible.
Calouste
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
And got a two-year ban from the Australian Olympic Committee for his troubles.
Norman Fan
Check out http://www.salutethemovie.com which gets released in the U.S during the London Olympics.
Paul in KY
@Cheap Jim: Mr. Norman did not loan them his gloves. One or the other (Mr. Smith/Mr. Carlos) had one pair of gloves & they each used one of them.
Cheap Jim
@Paul in KY: Well, that’s not the way I heard it. Second thought, the way I heard it is a better story, so you’re probably right.