Though the recall efforts against the six Republican State Senators who stood proudly with Gov. Scott Walker as he stripped away collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of public employees in Wisconsin are far from over, many on the left are already busy making plans the recall of Gov. Walker.
In response to questions about the timing of the recall effort against Gov. Walker, Mike Tate, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, issued a statement via email:
“As with the recall of the six Republican senators, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin will be committed to listening to the people when it comes to the recall of Scott Walker in 2012.
But our priority right now is the historic recall elections as a way to stop the runaway Walker agenda.
Only after victory there will we be positioned to have the discussion about not merely the recall of Scot Walker, but about what strategy will have the highest likelihood of his defeat.
This will be part of the discussion comprising the entire progressive community, which we will be able to have in full only after winning victory in August.
As the party OF the people, rest assured that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin will listen TO the people when it comes to our great shared goal of stopping Scott Walker’s assault ON the people.”
While I understand the desire of many who are opposed to Gov. Walker’s radical right-wing agenda, a group that includes not only Democrats but independents and Republicans, I think a spring recall election of Gov. Walker would be a terrible strategic move, especially considering Wisconsin will have an April Republican Presidential primary. The Wisconsin Republican presidential primary will obviously turn out conservative voters in droves, especially if the Republican presidential nomination has not been decided, and putting a gubernatorial recall election on the same ballot as a contested Republican presidential primary would be utterly stupid, at least in my opinion.
It would seem to me to make more sense to initiate a recall election against Gov. Walker so that a recall election would coincide with the 2012 presidential election, an election that will see President Barack Obama at the top of every ballot in the state. While I acknowledge that the effort to recall Gov. Walker transcends party affiliations, putting a recall election on the same ballot as the presidential election will no doubt serve as an additional “kick in the pants” to help turn out voters who are more likely to vote Scott Walker out of office.
agreed 100%………
Agree.
It also ties Gov. Dropout to Assembly Republicans.
The longer Scott Walker is in power, the more damage he will do. I fear he’ll find a way to blunt the recall tool so that we can’t recall him later on. We need to get the recall done as soon as possible. We will regret any delay…mark my words.
I agree. We do not need to have delays. Get it Done!
The process involved in a recall election makes targeting any specific date difficult to do. Single actions, such as forced primaries, taken by parties either supportive of or opposed to the recall can cause the election date to move by an entire month. This election would also be subject to court challenges which may delay the process by days or weeks. The GAB only has so much discretion in scheduling of the election once all paperwork is filed and legal challenges resolved. So attempting to schedule the recall election to coincide with the regular election from the onset is unlikely to succeed. The possibility of the election coinciding with the Republican primary should be considered, and actions can be scheduled to eliminate that potential outcome. Walker can be recalled in January. Primaries could be as early as February, and the recall election held in March. Could challenges delay the final election by one month – exactly?
Do you honestly believe the argument that Walker is more likely to lose a November recall election than one that corresponds with the Spring Republican primary? I think Mike Tate simply doesn’t want to waste the large number of left-leaning voters who will flock to the polls for the recall election. I fear that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin will attempt to delay the recall in hopes of using its coattails in November. If Mike Tate makes any efforts to do so, he is likely to inspire a lot of Green Party or write-in protest votes downticket and possibly cost a few sitting Dems their seats.
Yes. Doesn’t take a Ph.D. in poli-sci to understand that age-old fact.
Didn’t the GOP just demonstrate exactly how easy it is to manipulate/delay/change the date of a recall election. Does anyone seriously believe that the any party in Wisconsin will be able to dictate the exact date of Walker’s recall election?
Isn’t there a way to do the recall in Spring but NOT have it coincide with the April election, seeing as there seemed to be so many options this summer? I, too, am afraid to wait too long, the longer he is there the more damage he can continue to do!
“The longer Scott Walker is in power, the more damage he will do. I fear he’ll find a way to blunt the recall tool so that we can’t recall him later on. We need to get the recall done as soon as possible. We will regret any delay…mark my words. ”
Agree 100% with this. You have to stop these people AS SOON AS YOU CAN. Dems always make the mistake of listening to consultants instead of the people that got them in power. The bottom line is that the people stepped up, protested, and got these Senators recalled, and they will do the same to Scott Walker. The DPW needs to support them, instead of playing inside baseball and cynically trying to drive turnout.
If you start the recalls as soon as you can, they’ll be handed in some time in January. If the Senate recalls are a guide, then there will be a 30-60 day review of the signatures (could be longer, 1 million isn’t out of the question), which puts it into mid-February. Then it’s 6 weeks for a primary and 4 weeks for a general election.
So you have a “placeholder” primary with someone else running alongside Feingold on April 5, and then we run Scotty out of power on May 3. Seems easy to me. And given the GOP Presidential primary in April, it’ll give us plenty of ammo when the Michelle Bachmanns of the world are shown on tape supporting Scott Walker, and the Kochs and the oligarchs that’ll be backing Walker will be more busy picking a GOP presidential nominee (if he isn’t toxic to them already).
Mike Tate needs to stop strategizing and work on giving the public what they want.
A “placeholder” Democratic primary? Kinda like the “fake” Democratic primaries that cost Wisconsin taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars? I get the strategy behind a move like that, but pushing the general election back by a month would require another election date in May, which would likely cost Wisconsin taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Didn’t we just complain about that very same thing?
What Jake said.
What Steve said.
ZB,
Now if I could just get you to agree with me that Jeb will run.
Jeb won’t run…you’re crazy.
You sound like my wife. Maybe you’re both right.
I’m so sick of this “The Democratic Party says” bs.
Let’s face it, the illustrious WI Dems, is the party that saw us lose Russ Feingold’s seat, the assembly, as well as the senate, and the governorship. Those who follow this trip are foolish to believe that we can wait.
I really hate to say it, but it seems that effective leadership is nowhere to be found on that side of the aisle.
If they think waiting for Obama 2012 is the answer, they apparently aren’t reading the news. When Obama is also open to putting cuts to Medicare and Social Security on the table, you can rest assured his chances at re-election if that happens, stand about the same as me being elected pope.
Alienating your base is not good policy, even if you mastered in political science at Lucky Charms University.
We need to stop them now. Appeasement doesn’t work. The grassroots that are winning the recalls are not Democrats. They are not activists. They are not independents or Republicans either. They are the disaffected, disenfranchised blue, white, and pink collar that are standing up, some for the first time in their lives. If we leave them standing, while we strategize, we will lose them. Recall ASAP
tc
“The grassroots that are winning the recalls are not Democrats.”
False. The groups winning the recall(s) are indeed Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they’re united in their belief that Gov. Walker and Republicans in the legislature have taken things way too far to the right.
“The groups winning the recall(s) are indeed Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they’re united in their belief that Gov. Walker and Republicans in the legislature have taken things way too far to the right. ”
Which is exactly why it must be ended as soon as possible. Screw the strategizing and slide-rules, the people want action, and we have to deliver it.
P.S. A “placeholder primary” is not close to hiring a Republican to run as a Democrat and do voter suppression methods.
My comment “are not Democrats” was shorthand for saying they are not party members and the hierarchy of the party does not control them and therefore needs to adapt to them. I’ve found incredibly fertile political ground in the edges of the rural counties among those who our local party organizations have been trying to reach for years. This demographic is the key ingredient for progressive control of the State. This is our (their) moment and if we play politics as usual we will not get them back anytime soon.
Additionally, stopping Walker is an obligation for those who can. As the point of the right wing spear splitting society, we as the shield most available need to do this now. And we can.
tc