Wisconsin Recall

[amadeus]

Hooray for the moderate Republican Walker and his Phantom Cuts.

Wisconsin's biennial budget increased $4 billion over Jim Doyle's last budget in 2009.

 

[Archbob]

they got to get 500k signatures first. They didn't swing the senate this time. I don't think the momentum will be as big next year because they failed to gain control of the senate.

 

[Bamspeedy]

Hooray for the moderate Republican Walker and his Phantom Cuts.

Wisconsin's biennial budget increased $4 billion over Jim Doyle's last budget in 2009.

Source? All I can find that says that (increaed 4 billion) is a random comment on HuffPost.

Doyle left him at least a 3 billion deficit.

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore says Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker invented the state’s $3.6 billion deficit
False
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin...-gwen-moore-says-wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-/

Other similar articles:

State Sen. Alberta Darling says the 2011-13 state budget eliminates the structural deficit “for the first time in decades.”
Mostly true
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin...sen-darling-says-2011-13-state-budget-elimin/

Gov. Jim Doyle says Wisconsin's projected budget shortfall is $1.5 billion, much lower than previously projected
False
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin...m-doyle-says-wisconsins-projected-budget-sho/

 

[downtown]

they got to get 500k signatures first. They didn't swing the senate this time. I don't think the momentum will be as big next year because they failed to gain control of the senate.

They can find 500,000 signatures in Dane County alone.

Highly disappointing that they weren't able to swing the Senate, but even picking up 2 seats via a recall is unprecedented in WI politics. Getting rid of that one bum who lost by 10%+ is a victory for the whole state.

 

[MobBoss]

Hope Walker enjoys the couple of months in office before his recall.

Whats the point in doing that if he's just going to win again?

 

[Leonel]

I like how they suddenly found 14k votes

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/04/08...4000-votes-after-clerk-forgets-to-click-save/

 

[downtown]

Whats the point in doing that if he's just going to win again?

I don't think thats a given at all, given his relative unpopularity. If somebody like Fiengold was offered up as the alternative, he could run up the score enough in Madison and Milwaukee to pull it off. Walker's popularity is in the low 40s.

 

[MobBoss]

I don't think thats a given at all, given his relative unpopularity. If somebody like Fiengold was offered up as the alternative, he could run up the score enough in Madison and Milwaukee to pull it off. Walker's popularity is in the low 40s.

So is just having numbers in the low 40s a reason for recall? This all seems just a bit too much 'push me/shove you' to actually help anything but advertizing companies in the state.....wasnt there something like 31 million spent just on the recall elections by candidates?

 

[downtown]

So is just having numbers in the low 40s a reason for recall? This all seems just a bit too much 'push me/shove you' to actually help anything but advertizing companies in the state.....wasnt there something like 31 million spent just on the recall elections by candidates?

Well, if you're a political party, you call for a recall if you think you can win I guess. One of the two Republicans who lost a recall election had better numbers than Scott (the other was a pretty disgusting guy who lost in a blowout). Scott is a pretty polarizing guy...the guys who like him REALLY like him, but the ones who hate him REALLY REALLY hate him. If Wisconsin Democrats can put up a a popular and credible candidate, I think they could beat him, by running up the score in places that are particularly anti-Scott. "Generic Democrat" probably loses.

I'm not sure what Tammy Baldwin would poll against Scott, but I imagine Fiengold would galvanize enough interest to make it work. I can't think of another Wisconsin Pol who could do it.

And yes, there was a ton of money, much of it coming from outside the state.

 

[MobBoss]

I guess my point is why have an election cycle if you can just have a recall vote for no other reason than you got enough signatures to make it happen? Seems really expensive and self-defeating of the political process to me.

 

[downtown]

I guess my point is why have an election cycle if you can just have a recall vote for no other reason than you got enough signatures to make it happen? Seems really expensive and self-defeating of the political process to me.

Thats why a lot of states and cities don't allow recall elections (and why we don't have one for the Presidency, thank God). This is the first time in Wisconsin, or maybe even national history, that a wholesale recall operation was set up simply because folks thought politicians, or a political party, overreached.