A potential recall effort against Milwaukee County Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic was announced Wednesday, hours before the County Board was to consider overriding vetoes to the 2011 budget by County Executive and Governor-elect Scott Walker.

The recall threat was prompted by Dimitrijevic’s support for increases in the new budget over the level proposed by Walker, said Orville Seymer, of Citizens for Responsible Government Network.

It’s worth noting Sup. Dimitrijevic has indicated she is considering a run for County Executive in the coming special election to replace Scott Walker, so it’s no surprise the folks at CRG – who’ve been happy to do Walker’s bidding since they helped him get elected County Executive – are threatening what’s likely to be yet another failed recall effort against a popular elected official in Sup. Dimitrijevic. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the real reason behind the threatened and likely to fail recall effort against Sup. Dimitrijevic is nothing more than an attempt to preemptively weaken her candidacy to the benefit of Scott Walker’s preferred successor, whoever that may be.

I never expected Gamble to cause such a hassle that Stone would need to spend $2000 on a consultant. This could perhaps explain why Stone, perceived as a moderate for many terms in office, drastically went hard right on several issues for this campaign. That disappointed some folks, like myself, who appreciated a moderate, independent-thinking individual like Stone in office.

Several Supervisors, including Pat Jursik, had come under intense pressure from the group Citizens for Responsible Government, which encouraged its supporters to bombard supervisors with phone calls and emails “encouraging” them to vote how CRG wanted them to vote. Supervisor Jursik is also the target of a possible recall at the hands of a group calling itself “No Tax Increase for Cudahy/South Milwaukee.” It remains to be seen if the group, which was registered by James Toczyl of Cudahy, will attempt a recall of Supervisor Jursik for her failure to vote in lockstep with the wishes of Scott Walker and CRG.

Here’s a list of how Supervisor Jursik voted on some key vetoes by County Executive Walker:

• Voted FOR four extra furlough days for county employees in 2010, bringing the total number of days they’ll be furloughed to 12.

• Voted to FOR Walker’s veto of the County Board Office of Sustainability.
• Voted FOR the elimination of county housekeeping jobs, putting 90 people out of work.

There’s a lot for CRG to like in those three votes alone, so it’ll be interesting to see if CRG and James Toczyl begin an effort to recall Supervisor Jursik.

Despite their multiple recall failures, the folks at CRG are going to keep trying, and this time they’re focusing their energy here in the south shore suburbs. According to a press release, CRG has agreed to provide assistance and financial support to a Cudahy and South Milwaukee citizens group interesting in holding county officials accountable for tax increases (that’s code for a group that wants to recall Supervisor Pat Jursik):

The group will file the necessary documents to form a resident Political Action Committee (PAC) named “No Tax Increase for Cudahy/South Milwaukee” tomorrow morning with the Milwaukee County Election Commission.

The impetus for forming the PAC was the tax increase positions of local county supervisor Patricia Jursik. The PAC was established to campaign in support of lower-tax candidates and against higher-tax candidates at the next election but has reserved the right to amend the PAC to a Recall PAC pending the outcome of future votes and actions by Jursik.

CRG flack Chris Kliesmet commented, “It is no secret that Supervisor Jursik continues to support a tripling of the Milwaukee County sales tax despite the fact that her district voted against it. Such actions are an outrageous breach of the implicit contract between politicians and constituents to represent them honestly. Ms. Jursik should not be surprised that her constituents are taking steps to hold her accountable or that her future actions may well inspire the cry for recall.”

Personally, if I were Pat Jursik, I wouldn’t be worried about a possible recall attempt, given CRG’s miserable track record when it comes to recalls of elected officials. I’m sure CRG is hoping to catch lightning in a bottle and finally get another elected official recalled, but I’m willing to bet this recall effort will end as quietly as CRG’s efforts to recall State Sen. Sullivan, Gov. Jim Doyle, and Mayor Ryan McCue.

It’ll be interesting to see if the recall effort against Ald. Kovac gains any momentum, but I’m betting this recall effort will end much like similar efforts in Wauwatosa and Cudahy.

As The Chief said…priceless.

Perhaps the bigger story in the failure of the recall effort against Sen. Sullivan is the failure of CRG – yet again – to find any success in a recall effort they’ve been involved in. In fact, since the pension scandal in Milwaukee County that led to a number of recalls of elected officials, the CRG hasn’t had any success recalling anyone. What’s more, I’d argue the recall efforts in Milwaukee County earlier this decade were a product of elected officials who were embroiled in the pension scandal being low-hanging fruit ripe for the picking. I’ve always believed CRG is overrated, and their lack of success since earlier this decade bears that out.

Capper, Xoff, and Jason Haas have more.