Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
In 2010, Wisconsin had a rightward shift that surpassed all expectations. On the national level we gained one seat in the Senate (replacing far-left Russ Feingold with Tea Party favorite Ron Johnson) and three in the House.
But on the state level, both houses of our legislature flipped to GOP control, and we also elected a Republican Governor, Scott Walker.
So the stage was set for an epic battle between Republicans and the Democrat/Union nexus. In early 2011, Long before anyone had heard of "Occupy Wall Street," our Capitol, in Madison, was occupied for weeks/months by leftist activists of all flavors. Democrat State Senators fled to Illinois and stayed there over a month rather than cast a vote on Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill. Allegedly there to prevent the bill's passage, in fact, what they were doing was delaying the process so that public sector unions could quickly renew contracts with municipalities across the state before the bill went through.
There was so much nonsense visited upon us in 2011, that I haven't the energy or space to list it all. But I will mention that when votes were put to the people, the Democrats and their Union Masters lost every time.
First, an attempt to replace Justice David Prosser with union ally Joanne Kloppenburg failed, and failed gloriously. Kloppenburg claimed victory on election eve when she led by a mere 200 votes. But when the final tally was given, and she lost by over 2000 votes, she demanded a costly recount -- which showed that she lost by an even larger margin.
Not to be dissuaded, the Democrat/Union nexus then attempted a recall of Six Republican State Senators in an effort to flip Senate control back to the Democrats. Though they managed to get two recalled (one of whom was already on thin ice with a personal scandal) our Senate remains in GOP control.
Rather than rehashing old news, I'll just link you to this excellent piece in City Journal that explains how Scott Walker's economic reforms are working very well for our state. In recent weeks, we're hearing about a lot of businesses moving to Wisconsin. Things are really looking up.
So naturally, the Democrats want to undo all this progress.
I provide the above as a backdrop to what's happening now.
As you probably know, we're in the middle of another recall season. Democrats are hoping to recall Gov. Scott Walker as well as four more Republican State Senators, including one from my Senate district.
Last month all the recall petitions were turned in, and now begins the long process of verifying them. The Government Accountability Board, which oversees this process, announced last December that it would accept obviously fake names on petitions (Mickey Mouse, Adolf Hitler) as long as the addresses were valid. So it's falling to the citizens to go through these petitions and verify them by themselves. (Democrats had earlier demanded that the signatures quickly be counted and the verification process halted . . . you know, before the fraud could be discovered.)
And a lot of invalid signatures are being discovered.
So many fraudulent signatures, in fact, that the recall effort against State Senator Scott Fitzgerald just might not happen after all.
In perhaps what is the most stunning news of the reports, it appears that the recall of Senator Scott Fitzgerald may not take place at all after only 12,833 eligible signatures were discovered among the recall petitions when 16,742 valid signatures were required. Only 14,061 unique names were found on 3,623 pages. While 340 recall pages were inaccessible, given the average of only 3.9 signatures per page, this might only add 1,320 signatures to the total before ineligible signatures are thrown out. This would still find the recall effort below the 16,742 threshold.
(EDIT: See comment #11 below. It's possible that there are now enough fraudulent signatures to nullify recall efforts for all four GOP State Senators.)
But the Democrat/Union nexus soldiers on. The Government Accountabililty Board, which is rapidly proving itself to be a highly partisan body, announced this week that they will not accept evidence of fraud presented by third-party groups.
So back to court we go! (Good thing we didn't end up with Joanne Kloppenburg, eh?)
Citizen volunteers are entering signatures from recall petitions into a massive, searchable database at the rate of 2.7 every second–hoping to uncover any evidence of fraud. However, all that work could go to waste if the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board gets its way.
On Wednesday, GAB staff told the Board it was decided internally that it will not accept any evidence of fraud from individuals or third-party groups. Only the official election campaigns of those officials being recalled may participate in reviewing the hundreds of thousands of signatures on the petitions.
Yet, groups like Verify the Recall, which has over 13,000 volunteers working to verify the signatures, are not allowed to coordinate their activities with political campaigns, since it could violate their non-profit tax status.
Verify the Recall, however, is not throwing in the towel. The independent effort, a project of two Wisconsin Tea Party groups, is working on a court challenge to the GAB’s decision, demanding that citizens be allowed to participate in the review process.
“The whole concept of recall is for citizens to hold their government accountable, and that’s what we’re doing too,” Ross Brown, Verify the Recall organizer, told the MacIver News Service on Wednesday. “The truth is the truth. It doesn’t matter where it comes from.”
The recall petitions have all been scanned in, and can be accessed here. Tens of thousands of pages to go through. This is a thankless job.
However, some enterprising blogger has started posting the petition pages with sometimes laughably inept attempts at fraud. Check out Wisconsin Recall Fail.
There are so many more stories to tell about what Wisconsin has been through this past year. I would encourage other Wisconsin Ricocheteers to chime in.
I think there are two lessons to be learned here:
First: attempts at economic reform, particularly when it threatens public sector union entitlements, are going to be met with hardcore resistance, not just from the unions, but from the entire left-o-sphere. What we've seen in Wisconsin this past year has not been pretty. I can only imagine what we'd see if serious efforts at entitlement reform were attempted at the federal level.
I admire Scott Walker for calmly moving forward with his agenda in spite of all the nonsense, both political and personal, that he's had to face. Scott Walker should have been Time Magazine's Man of the Year.
Second, and far more positively: as outlined in the City Journal article I linked at the start: it's working. People are seeing that it's working. Last summer's recall efforts failed, and that was before the results started coming in. Now that people are actually seeing positive results from Gov. Walker's reforms, I am starting to think that none of these recalls (which are estimated to cost the state $18 million) will succeed.
School districts are suddenly finding savings, are able to hire more teachers, keep the good ones, and even reduce class sizes. (The above is not necessarily true of the school districts who renewed their contracts with the unions, by the way.)
Wisconsin gets tagged as a Blue State, but Wisconsin is Purple. Obama won here easily in 2008. In 2000 and 2004, presidential elections here were very close and within the "margin of fraud." (Ask any Democrat and they'll tell you voter fraud doesn't exist in Wisconsin. Laugh at them.) Wisconsin is Deep Purple. But we're having a Red-Shift.
I want to mention again what I said earlier. In 2010 and 2011, every time Citizens were allowed to have a voice, every time votes were put to the people, the Democrats and Unions lost.
Things are changing. What lies ahead for Wisconsin is uncertain, but I'm feeling very positive about it today.
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Comments:
May '10
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
I get the feeling Wisconsin has the politics that Michigan would have if Michigan's state capitol were Ann Arbor.
Dec '10
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
Thanks, Drew. I have nothing of substance to say, but this is a great report and a good read.
Jan '11
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
Wisconsin Richocheter here Drew - excellent history of the situation! Let me know if/when you're in the Milwaukee area.
I cannot think of another public policy having such a dramatic positive effect in such a short span of time. It's been so satisfying to witness as a conservative. If we can fend off this latest attack, I feel this state can be a magnate for jobs & development in the Midwest that we've seen migrate to the Southern States/overseas these past 30 years.
Edited on February 9, 2012 at 7:04pmSep '10
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
Scott Walker is going to win. The unions are hand picking a leftist toady with zero appeal outside Madison and public employee break rooms.
Voters don't care about union bargaining and benefits. The only chance Democrats have in this recall is to focus on budget cuts and claim that Republicans are gutting public services, which is becoming an even more impossible sell with each passing day.
Aug '10
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
I see that Michigan's governor just announced a surplus of $500 million. I bet the people of MIchigan are not missing Granholm, who has found her new home at currentv. Wow, working for carbon credits must be a drag.
Aug '11
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
The recall effort is not the cakewalk Democrats had hoped for.
On the petitions circulated by one person in Sen. Van Wanggaard's district, 15% of the signatures have been found to be duplicates.
No wonder the Democrats wanted to keep these things under wraps and have the GAB quickly certify them.
Aug '11
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
Mark Belling Fan: Scott Walker is going to win. The unions are hand picking a leftist toady with zero appeal outside Madison and public employee break rooms.
Backing Falk (and all the cash that suggests) was such an extreme move, I'm actually surprised that the unions did it. They seem completely unaware that outside the crazy-zone of Dane County, people do not have such a wonderful view of them.
The "bubble" around Madison creates the world's most impenetrable echo chamber.
Jul '11
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
Great post Drew. Perhaps your state's Kung Fu is too strong for them.
Nov '11
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
This is all good to hear -- hope it continues!
It seems that Wisconsin is dominating the CPAC speaker line-up this year.
Jul '10
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
Well articulated post, Drew.
Aug '11
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
The news today reports that there are enough challenges to halt all four recall efforts against the GOP State Senators.
Wow.
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
Would that our Governor here in Michigan had the courage of Scott Walker. He has responded to the crisis by following the example of his Democratic predecessor and increasing taxes. The difference between the businessman elected Governor in Michigan and Scott Walker is the difference between Bob Dole and Ronald Reagan. The real struggle is within the Republican Party between the managerial progressives and the friends of liberty. Is the Republican Party going to be the tax collector for the welfare state? Or is it going to roll it back?
Oct '10
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
DrewInWisconsin:
I admire Scott Walker for calmly moving forward with his agenda in spite of all the nonsense, both political and personal, that he's had to face. Scott Walker should have been Time Magazine's Man of the Year.
Thanks for the fantastic post!
I would only ask this: Why is there no "Lexington Musket" Award given by Ricochet for our person of the year? It's no Bradley Prize but we've done enough Center of Gravity Polls to show we can tally votes. The winner would then have an obligatory acceptance appearance on the podcast.
Oct '10
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
Hey, wha...Go unions, stop Walker.
Nah, not really. We want you Yankees to prosper. When winter sends you scurrying down here, we like to see you throwing dollars around hither and yon.
Oct '11
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
WI ricocheter here. The walker reforms are working. I am hoping for the income tax cut I hear rumors about. This recall is going to go down in flames. Falk has never and will never get statewide traction and she has made tons of Dane co. Enemies. The Tammy Baldwin campaign should fail as well. I commend everyone to the excellent documentary on talk radio in the milwaukee area called liberty or lies.
Nov '10
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I've been transcribing info for Verify The Recall and I've found nothing suspicious so far. Of course, my results must be correlated with others', etc.
I very much like the idea of Verify the Recall and I'll continue my work, but your few examples do not reveal much fraud.
Most of your "frauds" rely on the kind of technicalities that the cynical Left would cite on behalf of their own cause. Any claim of "fraud" should be more compelling than most of these examples.
Edited on February 10, 2012 at 4:09amMay '10
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
DrewInWisconsin:
I want to mention again what I said earlier. In 2010 and 2011, every time Citizens were allowed to have a voice, every time votes were put to the people, the Democrats and Unions lost.
Unfortunately, in Ohio this was dramatically not the case, as the referendum on Kasich's public sector union roll-back went down nearly 2 to 1.
Contrary to Walker, Kasich included police and fire in his reforms -- a difference that I judged brave at the time but I now realize was foolish. They certainly deserved inclusion, and probably did in Wisconsin, too, but the key is to have just enough bravery, just enough caution, and Walker appears to have threaded that needle.
Congrats, and we'll enjoy vicariously from here.
Oct '11
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
Uplifting stuff, Drew. The states are where the real battle starts. The more we control the states, the less the left can cheat. The less they cheat, the more we'll win the federal races.
There's a tipping point in here somewhere. There are two big things working against us, tho. Judges sit for so long that any reform effort has to be generational, unless we address the problem directly (ref. Gingrich).
But the big problem is our own house - unless we can purge the McConnells and Romneys at all levels, there's no real progress and the best we can hope for is a permanent oscillation overlaid on an ever-downward trend.
Aug '11
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
David John:
I very much like the idea of Verify the Recall and I'll continue my work, but your few examples do not reveal much fraud.
Most of your "frauds" rely on the kind of technicalities that the cynical Left would cite on behalf of their own cause. Any claim of "fraud" should be more compelling than most of these examples.
The examples posted at Wisconsin Recall Fail are a mixed bag, to be sure. Some of it simple errors. Other stuff less innocent. But the fraudulent petitions from Van Wanggaard's district are being taken very seriously. Felony charges might be brought.
Aug '11
Re: Meanwhile, in Wisconsin . . .
Besides being very informative, the whole post was worth reading just for the term "margin of fraud"! I will be repeating that often!