Embattled Wisconsin Republicans court Rep. Paul Ryan’s support in recall fight

By Eric W. Dolan

Wisconsin Republican state senators are seeking Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), author of the proposed Republican budget plan, to join their fundraising efforts as they face recall elections.

Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is one of thefeatured attendees of a fundraiser this Friday for recently recalled Republican state Sen. Albert Darling of Milwaukee. Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R), Gov. Scott Walker (R), and U.S Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) are also among the featured guests at the event, which charges $30 for admission.

Another Republican state senator, Dan Kapanke of La Crosse, previously invited Ryan to a fundraiser in May, but Ryan was unable to attend because of a family event.

The liberal groups Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy For America have raised over $200,000 as part of a media campaign to oust the Republican state senators Kapanke, Darling and Randy Hopper of Green Bay. They said Ryan's invitation to these fundraisers shows that the embattled senators support the U.S. congressman's budget cutting agenda.

"Alberta Darling is part of the same national Republican war on working families that is trying to end Medicare and cut programs like BadgerCare," Neil Sroka, PCCC spokesman, said. "Paul Ryan's endorsement of her will be an issue in this campaign."

A survey conducted by the Democrat-affiliated firm Public Policy Polling in May found that a majority of voters in Wisconsin had an unfavorable view of Ryan, whose budget proposal includes privatizing Medicare. Forty-six percent had an unfavorable view of the U.S. congressman, compared to 41 percent who had a favorable view.

The Wisconsin Elections Board has certified recall elections this summer for six Republican state senators and three Democratic state senators.

Recall elections approved for 6 Wisconsin Republicans

By David Edwards

The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board Tuesday approved recall elections for three Republicans, bringing the total number to six. At the same time, the nonpartisan election officials put the recall elections of three Democrats on hold.

Recall elections for Republican state Sens. Rob Cowles, Alberta Darling and Sheila Harsdorf were unanimously approved. The board had previously approved recall elections for Republican state Sens. Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke and Luther Olsen.

Republicans cried foul after the board put off a decision on recall elections for Democratic state Sens. Bob Wirch, Dave Hansen and Jim Holperin.

"This is an example of a supposedly neutral government agency acting in a blatantly partisan manner to further the objectives of a particular political party," Dan Hunt, who led the recall effort against Wirch, toldThe Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.

Board attorney Shane Falk explained that the decision on Democratic recall elections had been delayed because Democrats raised legal objections that the board had not dealt with before.

Democrats have charged that Republicans forged signatures on recall petitions as well as paying voterswith alcohol to sign petitions.

Falk said that Republicans had brought the same challenges as they had recall elections that had already been approved.

We've attempted to work concurrently on all the petitions but we simply don't have enough staff," Falk told the board.

"We have a biased body that has no check or balance with the voters," David VanderLeest, who plans to run against Democrat Dave Hansen, complained.

The accountability board was created by a Democratic Senate and Republican Assembly in 2007 to oversee elections without partisanship.

"I've never seen any hint of partisan bias," University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor David Canon told the Journal Sentinel. "They absolutely try to oversee Wisconsin election laws fairly."

The board planned to ask a judge Wednesday for an additional week to approve the Democratic recall elections.

If things go as planned, the Republican recall elections would be held July 12. If there is more than one challenger in any race, July 12 would be a primary and Aug. 9 would be the general election.

Democratic recall elections would be held July 19. The court will have the final say over the schedule

Maddow: Wisconsin Republicans bought recall petition signatures with shots

By Megan Carpentier

Last night, Rachel Maddow looked at the competing fights to recall various Wisconsin state legislators in the wake of Governor Scott Walker’s (R) moves to strip public unions of their collective bargaining rights. And, while Democrats are looking to recall some Republican state Senators in districts that are now trending more Democratic, Republicans did get enough signatures to put some Democratic state Senators through recall fights themselves.

Though, as Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post first reported, there’s just a slight problem with some of those petitions: out-of-state signature collectors may have bought those votes in exchange for shots. It’s legal, apparently, but doesn’t make the Republicans look any better.

Watch the video, which first aired on The Rachel Maddow Show on April 21, 2011, below:

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Wisconsin Democrats nearly halfway to recalling GOP state senators

By Eric W. Dolan

Almost half of the signatures needed to recall key Republican Wisconsin state senators have been collected by the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

Democrats have collected over 56,000 signatures supporting a recall of eight state senators who aligned themselves with Republican Gov. Scott Walker's controversial budget repair bill,The Washington Post reported.

"This morning citizens from around the state took the first steps by filing recall papers against key Republican Senators who have stood with Scott Walker and pushed his partisan power grab that will strip thousands of middle class teachers, nurses, librarians and other workers of their right to collective bargaining," theWisconsin Democratic Party said in an email two weeks ago.

Under Wisconsin law, any elected official who has served at least one year of their current term can be recalled from office. Eight Republican and eight Democratic senators are currently eligible to be recalled. Gov. Walker, who was inaugurated last January, will not be eligible for a recall until 2012.

Democrats need to collect 25 percent of the number who voted in the last gubernatorial election within 60 days of filing for recalls.

Protesters learned Sunday that Wisconsin state senator Randy Hopper's wife reportedly intends to sign the recall petition against him.

The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) has vowed to defend the state senators and Republicans have launched their own recall campaign against eight Democratic state senators, but haverefused to reveal the amount of signatures they’ve collected.

Republicans currently have a 19 to 14 majority in the Wisconsin Senate.

Wisconsin Senate strips state workers of bargaining rights

By Eric W. Dolan

Bypassing Senate Democrats who fled the state, Republican senators in Wisconsin managed to pass legislation Wednesday to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights.

In mid-February, 14 Democratic state senators left Wisconsin to avoid having to vote on the budget repair bill. There are 19 Republican senators, but the Senate needs a minimum of 20 members to be present to debate and vote on any bills that spend money.

While the 14 Democratic senators remained in Illinois, Republicans split the proposal to limit public employees' collective bargaining rights from the budget repair bill and passed the separate piece of legislation shortly afterward.

"The Senate Democrats have had three weeks to debate this bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come home, which they refused," Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said in a statement. "In order to move the state forward, I applaud the Legislature's action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform the government. The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs."

One Republican, Sen. Dale Schultz, voted against the measure.

The new stand-alone bill to curb collective bargaining rights still needs to be passed by the Wisconsin Assembly before it can be signed into law by Gov. Walker.

"I think it's akin to political hara-kiri," Democratic state Sen. Bob Jauch told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "I think it's political suicide."

The Wisconsin Democratic Party has launched a campaign to recall key Republican state senators who have aligned themselves with the governor's budget repair bill.

Under Wisconsin law, any elected official who has served at least one year of their current term can be recalled from office. Eight Republican senators are currently eligible to be recalled. Gov. Walker, who was inaugurated last January, will not be eligible for a recall until 2012.

"This is on the Republicans' heads right now," state Sen. Chris Larson (D) said. "If they decide to kill the middle class, it's on them."

"Everyone who is party to this travesty is writing their political obituary," he added.

Wisconsin Voters Launch Recall Campaign Against Eight GOP State Senators

By Ian Millhiser

Last month, ThinkProgress reported that Wisconsin law allows any elected official who has served at least one year of their current term to be recalled from office. Today, a group of Wisconsin voters took the first step towards invoking this recall process. According to a Wisconsin Democratic Party e-mail that was obtained by ThinkProgress:

This morning citizens from around the state took the first steps by filing recall papers against key Republican Senators who have stood with Scott Walker and pushed his partisan power grab that will strip thousands of middle class teachers, nurses, librarians and other workers of their right to collective bargaining. And we learned just last night that their disastrous budget that will cut millions from our schools and universities. . . .

Make no mistake, these Republican Senators are vulnerable to recall for their radical partisan overreach. Senator Randy Hopper won his last election by just 184 votes. And Alberta Darling won her last race by only 1,007. By recalling just three of the eight Senators [Democrats] are targeting, [Democrats] can regain control of the Senate.

Under Wisconsin law, supporters of this recall effort now have 60 days to collect an amount of signatures “equal to at least 25% of the vote cast for the office of governor at the last election within the same district or territory as that of the officeholder being recalled.” The amount of signatures necessary to trigger a recall will vary from district to district, but will range from about 15,000 to 21,000 signatures per recalled senator.

If the supporters succeed in collecting enough signatures, the result is an effective “do over” election. The incumbent will automatically be a candidate in the election unless they resign from office, and Democrats and members of other political parties will be allowed to nominate opponents. The winner of a recall election is seated as soon as the election result is certified.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who was inaugurated last January, will be eligible for a recall in January of 2012.

UPDATEThe SEIU has signed onto the recall effort as well.

UPDATEThe Chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party suggests that his Party willcontinue to back this recall effort even if the eight targeted senators offer to withdraw their support for Gov. Walker's anti-union bill in order to quell the recall campaign:

Asked if Wisconsin Dems would drop their push to recall senators if they abandoned the drive to roll back public employee bargaining rights. Tate said he couldn't guarantee that, arguing that Walker's proposed budget cuts yesterday took this fight to a whole new level. "In the past 24 hours, this has gotten so much larger than the rights of our public employees," he said. "This is much larger now than it was a week ago."

Missing WI Dem: Republicans may strip union rights without us

By Sahil Kapur

All 14 Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate staged an exodus from their state Thursday to protest Republican Gov. Scott Walker's budget bill, which strips the collective bargaining rights of public employees.

Part of the purpose was to ensure that Republicans fail to garner the requisite support for the proposal. There are 19 Republicans in the Senate, and passage would require 20 votes because the bill has a fiscal impact.

But one of the missing Democrats, Sen. Jon Erpenbach, told The Associated Press on Monday he's worried that Republicans may attach the provision curtailing unions' bargaining rights to an unrelated, non-budgetary bill on Tuesday.

His fears were expressed after GOP Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Republicans may call a session Tuesday to consider other legislation.

Walker said Monday he won't back down against critics, as thousands of demonstrators -- including Wisconsin teachers and police -- have in recent days gathered in the capital city of Madison to protest his budget plan.

The 14 Wisconsin Democrats are reportedly residing in Illinois, and have vowed not to return until the provision is removed from the budget.

Democrats need the votes of just three Republican senators to block the measure.

Analysts speculate that Walker's proposal, which seeks to cut spending and trim the state's deficit, is also a dagger aimed at the heart of the Democratic Party, which enjoys strong support from unions.

The outcome of the Wisconsin battle, which has garnered enormous national attention, could have implications on other states considering ways to balance their budgets.