On NPR’s Morning Edition today, there was piece about the recall drive against Gov. Scott Walker (R-WAI). Today was the deadline for turning in at least 540,208 signatures to force a recall election. There was speculation that a much larger number would be turned in. In response, Walker said (my emphasis):
“The optimist in me looks at that and says, ‘the overwhelming majority of the people in the state chose not to sign that and I earned the trust of the majority the last time.’ My hope is I will earn their trust again.”
This afternoon the Wisconsin State Journal writes:
Democrats and organizers filed petitions Tuesday afternoon with more than a million signatures as they sought to force a recall election against Gov. Scott Walker – a massive number that seems to cement a historic recall election against him for later this year.
Holy shit! Over a million signatures?!?
In the 2010 election, Walker got 1,128,941 votes, and his opponent, Mayor Tom Barrett (D-Milwaukee), got 1,004,303 votes. That is a total of 2,133,244 votes. So, the signature drive may well have collected signatures from a majority of the voters in the state.
Let’s put this into context. Suppose there are exactly one million and one signatures. Then it means the signatures amounted to 46.9% of the 2010 vote total. That’s huge.
In the 2003 California gubernatorial recall drive, organizers turned in 1.6 million signatures (of which 1,356,408 were valid). There were 7,738,821 votes in that election. So, that recall drive turned in signatures that amounted to only 20.7% of the 2003 vote total.
There are differences between Wisconsin and California in the recall process. Wisconsin requires a minimum of 25% of the number of votes cast in the previous election to California’s 12%. And there are different laws about signing petitions. Still, 46.9% is pretty fucking impressive.
In addition to the Walker recall, a sufficient number of signatures was returned to force recall elections for Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch (R), and four Republican state Senators (Fitzgerald, Galloway, Moulton and Wanggaard).
After he’s recalled, and sitting in his home office pondering his next move, he very well may be arrested. His shenanigans as a County executive are just now coming to light. Playing fast and loose with bond money, HUD funds going to childhood friends with construction companies, redefining terms of county zoning codes so his close friends can develop the land any way they saw fit. Ignoring neighbors concerns about how land was to be developed by refusing them access to the meetings or hiding the proceedings amongst other processes. Making decisions as County Executive behind closed doors with no public input, while allowing his construction buddies to set policy.
Several of his cronies have already been arrested, and are facing decades of prison time if convicted.
@1 I want to see the people who assaulted signature gatherers or tore up petitions sitting in jail, too.
The news must have caused Scotty to romney (defecate in terror). His days appear numbered.
“Gov. Scott Walker (R-WA)”
Might want to fix that.
T @ 4,
“Oops.”
That is a pretty stunning number of recall signatures.
This will be the third gubernatorial recall election in American history. In the previous two (ND, 1921; CA, 2003) the incumbents lost.
This is the Wisconsin equivalent of the Million Man* March. They should have brass bands and bagpipes playing the day Walker leaves office.
* And Woman
Now the Wisconsin GOP’s vote suppression machinery will rev up to full throttle.
The battle is in Wisconsin.
The Recall Walker organizers would like to see the recall election held in November, so it coincides with the November presidential election. They figure that the combined turnout for both elections will help defeat Walker and re-elect Obama.
But Wisconsin recall laws say the election has to be held within sixty days of certification of the recall petition. Although there are other ways to drag it out further, getting it past June would be difficult.
Ironically, Walker may be helping in the effort to have a November recall election. One of his ads against the recall campaign was the allegation that a special recall election would cost the state eight million dollars. If they hold it at the same time as the November general election, of course, it doesn’t cost the state anything. Also, Walker (so far) has attempted to drag the process out, apparantly in the belief that the Recall Walker campaign will lose momentum as the events of the last year recede in memory.
In any event, I tend to believe that Walker would prefer a summer recall election. Those have always resulted in lower turnoughts due to family vacations, etc., and Republicans tend to do better in those “low turnout” elections than otherwise.