Good news for Democrats in Ohio. With the defeat of SB5, the momentum in the state clearly favors the Democrats going into 2012. And new polling from Public Policy Polling demonstrates that.
In a poll conducted this week, PPP finds that Obama is going to benefit from a strongly unified Democratic base.
Obama gets 88-92% of his party’s vote against the six Republican candidates. What makes that particularly notable is that his approval rating with Democratic voters is actually only 73%. But these numbers suggest that when election time comes around the party base will get around Obama whether they’re totally thrilled with him or not, and that’s a very good sign for his reelection prospects.
We’ve got the same thing going for us here in Wisconsin as we hurtle into recall season (despite a premature green light on the signature gathering). We face another challenge though, one that the good people of Ohio did not have.
Let’s face it, it’s harder to recall a human than it is to recall a law. Ohioans have the advantage on us. Their ability to execute a “citizen’s veto” on an unpopular law means that they don’t have to face the prospect of a recall of their governor to overturn bad legislation. As much as Democrats and labor would like to punish Kasich for his arrogance and stupidity, pulling the law off the books is a better approach. Kasich may be wildly unpopular, but it becomes personal when you have to go after the man rather than his policies and legislation.
This is the challenge confronting us ‘Sconies.
Our success in this recall effort is directly linked to our ability to wrap Govenror Walker in his unpopular laws. We must bind him tightly with these laws and with his rubber-stamp legislature. We must show the people of Wisconsin that these laws were not the product of local concerns or local ideas to solve local problems but the product of a “legislation factory” in Washington known as ALEC.
Ask the important questions of people. What does ALEC know about life in Wisconsin? Does ALEC care that Milwaukee is one of the poorest cities in America? Does ALEC care that the infant mortality rate in Milwaukee County is higher than anywhere else in America? What does ALEC know about the history and heritage of Wisconsin?
Get irate! How dare Governor Walker impose these outsider laws on us! What ever happened to “state’s rights” here? Whatever happened to “local control?” You see? That is how we win. We turn their arguments back upon them, judo-style. Don’t just focus on the content of the laws, focus on the way in which the laws came to Wisconsin in the first place. Get people angry about the imposition of external ideas on local problems. Hold the GOP to the same standards they claim to hold others. We must drive a wedge between the GOP and the independent voter.
If we fail to truss Governor Walker up very, very tightly with his ALEC laws, we will not succeed. Some of us may find him personally reptillian in his deportment, many in the state find him “charming.” This is what makes it so hard to target the man and not the laws.
And even when we recall him, the laws will still be on the books. It will take another strong push to overturn the Republican domination of the Assembly and the Senate. Only then can these laws be rescinded.
The game’s afoot!
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