Up here in Wisconsin the non stop elections continue. More under the fold if you are interested.
The GAB or Governing Accountability Board has certified recall elections for four more state senators, and the Governor and Lt. Governor.
One Republican Senator resigned abruptly to deal with some family health issues. This leaves the Senate as it now stands at 16-16. Our state government is not in session again until next year.
I think that the Dems will probably flip the Senate in the recall elections. I don’t have anything to base this on besides a gut feeling. If they do, it will be a HUGE victory for them in the press, but a hollow one functionally, as there is no work being done at the capitol building until next year as I mentioned. Some of those seats will have to be defended once again in the general elections this fall.
And there are primaries – some of them with fake Democrats running, to push back the clock a bit and help the R’s with fund raising. So you never know, the Republicans could still pull this out.
There is going to be a heated Democratic primary to see who will face Governor Walker in his recall election. Wisconsin is an open primary state, so it is beneficial to me to vote for who I think would be the worse candidate. It basically comes down to the super liberal Kathy Falk, who has already stated her intention to bed down with the unions. And then there is Tom Barrett, mayor of Milwaukee who lost to Walker in Nov. 2010. I think Barrett isn’t totally nuts like Falk, but has a better chance against Walker. Someone already said that Falk will make a great governor of Madison and that is pretty much true.
In the end, I think the Democrats will crawl across broken glass to vote for whomever they select. It is going to be a long summer up here for this crap. The governors race will be like nothing we have ever seen.
Must be something in the cheese.
Tell me about it.
Hugh Hewitt was interviewing someone from WI yesterday – on the recall – and he was saying that it looks very good for Walker – the candidates the Dems are running have had a poor showing in previous races – which I could remember his name….
@Bill – more good news, Walker has amassed an amazingly huge war chest – there is no limit on contributions or spending on recall elections. People are literally sending him quarter million dollar checks.
@Dan – the interviewee (is that a word?:) also said something else that was memorable – that Walker is one of the few who actually did what he promised to do in the campaign (a rarity among politicians) – and now he is being raked over the coals for it.
He should be rewarded and not punished.
But he thought as far as the recall in general the Walker forces were looking pretty good…
Heck, I will send him a check….
I really want Walker to win. But if he doesn’t, it isn’t the end of the world. The Senate may flip but the Assembly is firmly in R control for a long time. The reforms of Walker are in place and they are working very well. That cannot be undone quickly. Sadly there are the inevitable court challenges now and the automatic deduction of union dues for state workers was the first thing suspended, but that I believe is up on appeal. Honestly it is hard to keep track of this stuff anymore.
Good luck. Surely when the reforms work people will come to accept them. It’s kind of like the welfare reforms of the nineties or the Katrina victims who (when they weren’t increasing the crime rates of which ever city was unlucky to get them) found that moving out of New Orleans, getting jobs, and becoming self-supporting was actually a lot more fun. We know what works – why do we keep forgetting?
I saw a bumper sticker on an independently owned semi-truck with WI plates yesterday here in the Chicago burbs: “Support Governor Walker”
Not all the blue collar vote is going Dem.
flatlander – indeed the trade unions are not exactly happy with the Democrats for spiking a bill that would have updated the Wisconsin environmental laws and allowed a mine to be opened in northern Wisconsin – that cost the trade unions a lot of desperately needed jobs. I deal with a lot of union tradesmen and in general, they have very little sympathy for the teachers/govt. workers unions.
The whole Wisconsin thing is a gift for Romney as the unions have stirred up a firestorm. Now, if they can control it and put the fire out, they may benefit. We’ll see.
I like Rob S. Pierre. Him and George Danton. Public safety for everyone, regardless of race. Hope and change.