Tag: Wisconsin

This is dedicated to my friend the Ben Masel.

The polls opened this morning in Wisconsin to determine the recall of six of eight Republicans in the state Senate who voted to end union bargaining rights that sparked mass protests earlier this year. The Democrats need to win at least 3 seats to take back the Senate from the grips of the tea party Republicans. the other two races will be held on August 16th. These are the races that will be determined tonight:

• District 2:

  Robert Cowles R (incumbent) *
  
  Nancy Nusbaum D

• District 8:

  Alberta Darling R (incumbent) *
  
  Sandra Pasch D

• District 10:

  Sheila Harsdorf R (incumbent) *
  
  Shelly Moore D

• District 14:

  Luther Olson R (incumbent) *
  
  Fred Clark D

• District 18:

  Randy Hopper R (incumbent)
  
  Jessica King D *

• District 32:

  Dan Kapanke R (incumbent)
  
  Jennifer Shilling D *

There has been an influx of outside money in these races much of it from two groups with direct ties to the Koch brothers have financed many tea party organizations like Americans for Prosperity and Citizens for a Stronger America.

Amount spent on all state races in 2010: $3.75 million. Amount spent on recall elections targeting eight state senators: $31 million.

It has been nearly impossible to poll these races, as even the polling has been so skewed one way then another. We will just have to wait until the “fat lady” stops singing at 8 PM CDT (9 PM EDT).

Up dates will be posted as the returns are reported.

Up Date 20:17 PM EDT: Reports are coming in that voters turn out reached presidential election proportions of up to 70% in some districts. John Nichols on Countdown with Keith Olbermann believes that they could take back ore that three seats.

Up Date 21:00 EDT: In New Hampshire in a unnoticed special election for a seat in the Republican held Senate, Democrat Bob Perry wins the election

The polls in Wisconsin are now closed.

Up Date 09:30 EDT: Early this morning the race in the 18th District was called for the incumbent, Alberta Darling, leaving the Democrats one member short of taking back control of the WI State Senate. It did create a senate with a narrow margin of one. Democrats, although disappointed, were encouraged and will move on with the effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker in January.

Wisconsin voters are suffering from “buyers remorse” and are now using the democratic process to remedy some of the bad choices they made last November by recalling six Republicans state senators. The petitions to re-call Gov. Scott Walker are already being prepared with more legislators being targeted. At a rally in Madison this past weekend, one of those November losers, former Sen. Russ Feingold gave arousing speech rallying support for the up coming re-call vote.

Why are we in a place called Walkerville today? I will tell you why we’re here. We are here because we will not stop until we win, until this is over. We are here because the big corporate interests in this country decided, about 20 years ago, ‘I think the first thing we’ll do is pass a bunch of trade agreements and ship overseas all the jobs of the people in the private sector’, that’s the first thing they decided to do. They got the job done on that, ruthlessly, tricking both parties into it, and then they said ‘Okay, now we go after the public employees. Let’s go after, those, let’s start saying that teachers aren’t the people they are, let’s start demonizing public employees, and maybe we can get the people who lost their jobs on the private side to turn on the people on the public side!’. It’s divide and conquer by the big money interests in this country, that’s always been their strategy. Frankly, I don’t think all of us saw it coming. I certainly didn’t see the ruthlessness and how far they would go with this. . . .

We only need 17 of em. So that we are able to keep Walker stopped. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything more. That’s not enough. Then we gotta take back the state assembly in the 2012 elections. And then we all agree, we want the trifecta, and that we have to defeat Scott Walker and get a new Governor. And then we need a repeal passed by the Democratic state senate, passed by the Democratic state assembly and then signed by the new Democratic governor, that is what we need.

I am here to stand with you to continue that fight. If it takes a year, great, if it takes five years, it’s worth it. This is not a short term deal. I used to say when I maybe occasionally played a little to aggressively with my sister, ‘The game is not over until I win!’, well, this game is not over until WE WIN!

Get this man back into public office, either the Senate or the Wisconsin State house as governor, better yet as President of the United States.

h/T Crooks & Liars and Ministry of Truth

As was speculated, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) will not be seeking reelection to the US Senate in 2012. This leaves an open race and a golden opportunity to bring back Russ Feingold to the US Senate. This also opens the door for Tea Party Republican Rep. Paul Ryan (R/TP-WI), to run and he is considering it. I would pay to see them debate, Russ would wipe the dais with Paul’s corporatist, Koch bought and paid for, bull pucks. Most likely, Ryan’s seat would also flip. Compared to Feingold, Ryan is no heavy weight and Wisconsin in ripe for the Democrats to win back. Certainly a win-win in the making.

Heavyweights Ryan, Feingold weigh Senate race in Wisconsin

The two candidates widely considered to be the top prospects to run for Wisconsin’s newly open Senate seat – GOP Rep. Paul Ryan and former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold – both left open the possibility of a 2012 bid on Friday.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said in a statement that he was “surprised” by Sen. Herb Kohl’s (D) announcement, and that he will “take some time over the next few days to discuss the news with my family and supporters before making any decision.”

Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, has become a focal point for national Democrats, who have slammed his proposed budget as the “end of Medicare.” Democrats are already framing the 2012 elections as a referendum on Ryan’s budget plan, a debate that would be further fueled by Ryan’s entry into the Senate race.

snip

Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) would likely be the first-choice candidate, according to one national Democrat. But Feingold isn’t likely to make a quick decision on the race.

In a statement issued through his Progressives United PAC, Feingold made no mention of the 2012 race, praising Kohl as someone who “has served the state with honor.”

But Feingold’s former chief of staff told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Friday that the former senator, who lost to Republican Ron Johnson last November, will come to a decision in “the coming months.”

Run, Russ, run. Please

They say liquor is quicker.

Wisconsin Recall Fight Heats Up As Democrats Complain Of ‘Shots For Signatures’ Deals (AUDIO)

by Amanda Terkel

WASHINGTON — In an effort to gather enough signatures to trigger recall elections of state senators in Wisconsin, some backers are turning to peculiar, unconventional and, it appears, even intoxicating means.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party is planning to file a complaint to the state Government Accountability Board alleging that a Republican signature-gatherer offered alcoholic beverages to a group of women to get them to sign a recall petition against a Democratic state senator.

Although that’s not illegal in Wisconsin, it is strongly discouraged and, Democrats argue, evidence that Republicans don’t really have enough grassroots support for their recall campaigns.

Wisconsin Democrats Laugh Off “Republican Recall Racket”

by David Weigel

Today, a bit less than a week before the deadline, recall petitions are being filed against three Wisconsin Democratic senators. State Democratic party spokesman Graeme Zielinski has given me the party’s response to the petitions, which can be summed up as “ha, ha.”

Without any real enthusiasm on the part of the citizens of the districts to support the anti-Wisconsin Walker agenda, the Republican recall racket was forced to rely on road agents from a Colorado firm and elsewhere, mercenaries from out-of-state who came in and were paid money per recall signature. The only real press that this practice got was the reporting on a Colorado canvasser with a dangerous felony record who was was preying on visitors to Lambeau Field and taking stolen items to a motel room paid for by Republicans. But that dangerous Colorado felon employed by the Republican Party was just the tip of the iceberg.  At the heart of the Republican effort from the start was a mercenary spirit that naturally used deception and fraud to gain signatures.

snip

The Republican recall racket used unethical practices to gain signatures. In Burlington, for instance, a Republican canvasser offered patrons of a tavern shots of liquor in exchange for recall signatures against Sen. Bob Wirch. And in Green Bay, Republicans left recall signatures unattended with a sign that said, “Out to lunch,” an unethical and forbidden practice.

Crossposted at Daily Kos and Docudharma

Note: I kept getting errors about text being corrupted while trying to post the complete diary.  This is only half the diary.  There are many more sections and editorial cartoons in this diary that I posted over at Daily Kos.

Crossposted at Daily Kos and Docudharma

Crossposted at Daily Kos and Docudharma

Michael Moore appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show commenting on the aftermath of the stealth, and quite possibly illegal, vote by the Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate to remove the right of collective bargaining from state workers. He was so furious that his voice actually broke with the emotion of the moment. Every working person in this country needs to walk out on Friday at 2 PM in your respective time zones and join the people of Wisconsin to take back our country for the people.

I’m enraged.  Wisconsin’s union workers this evening were temporarily outflanked by a legislative maneuver of questionable legality.  And of despicably sleazy intent. The Senate decided that, as everyone in opposition to it has been saying for months, the union busting bill really wasn’t a fiscal measure, the previous pronouncements that it was be damned.  No, it wasn’t a fiscal measure.  It was a union busting measure.  And therefore, the bill didn’t need a quorum in the Senate.  It could pass the Wisconsin Senate with no democrats voting.  Or even appearing.  So there. This wonderfully disingenuous piece of legislative legerdemain has– let’s call it what it is–  temporarily screwed Wisconsin’s public unions by withdrawing their right to bargain collectively.

And now.  And now, amigo@s, comes the real test.  Will the unions and their supporters and the demonstrators and you and I all throw up our hands in defeat and despair and slink home?  Will we say in words or actions, “Oh, we lost, it’s over, let’s just forget about it and move on?”  Or will we stand up now and fight on (nonviolently) with ever renewed dedication to overturn this evil, unpopular, antidemocratic, antiunion measure?

I hope that hundreds of thousands of people show up in Madison tomorrow to demonstrate against Governor Walker and the Koch funded Teapublicans.  I hope an equal number will show up in Lansing.  And in Union Square, New York.  And in San Francisco.  And Chicago.  And in every town and city in America that recognizes the dignity of workers and their right to bargain collectively.  I hope the recall efforts will be redoubled.  I hope that the demonstrators inspire a nationwide high school strike tomorrow at 2 pm.  And I hope the demonstrators will invite farmers to show their support, to come to Madison, to ride their tractors to and surround the capitol.  And I hope that across Wisconsin and across America teachers and nurses and garbage collectors and firemen and bureaucrats and policemen will all link arms with other workers, students, progressives, anyone who supports the unions and sees that the withdrawal of public unions’ collective bargaining rights is a step back, a regression into the darkness of the Nineteenth Century.

Yes, I’m enraged.  But I’m also hopeful.  I’m hopeful that we, you and I, amig@s, will not let Walker and the Koch funded Teapublicans get away with this.  I’m hopeful that this is the beginning not of a demonstration, but of an actual, popular movement.  I hope that the movement will continue with increased strength and focus to preserve the rights of workers to organize and to bargain collectively.

Yes, I’m idealistic.  And maybe pretty unrealistic.  And not particularly practical.  That doesn’t matter.  I believe that what we are about to see is a real change.  Coming from an organic movement.  And that we will now begin in earnest to link arms and stand in Solidarity in the struggle for what I believe is the survival of the middle class.  Here’s John Lennon:

cross posted from The Dream Antilles  

This is not just about the rights of workers to bargain but it is a class war that, as Michael Moore says, was started 30 years ago by Ronald Reagan. It is civil and human rights issue as well.

Tens of Thousands Cheer Michael Moore in Madison: “You Have Aroused a Sleeping Giant, Known as the Working People”

Filmmaker Michael Moore marched with members of Madison Firefighters Local 311 to the Wisconsin Capitol Saturday and delivered a old-school progressive populist address is which he told a crowd numbering in the tens of thousands that: “Wisconsin is not broke. America is not broke.”

“The country is awash in wealth and cash. It’s just not in your hands,” he told the Wisconsinites who rallied to challenge the claim that the state needs to strip public employees and their teachers of collective bargaining rights in order to balance budgets.

Moore ripped apart Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s claim, made repeatedly in recent weeks, that the state is broke.

“Never forget the three biggest lies of the past ten years,” Moore said. “Number one: America is broke. Number two: there are weapons of mass destruction. Number three: The Packers can’t win the Super Bowl Without Brett Farve.”

Laura Flanders of GRITtv interviewed Mr. Moore this past week.

For anyone who still thinks the inspiring actions in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana are just about public employees in those states, here’s a moving dose of reality.

People in every walk of life and every part of the country — even other countries — are expressing heartfelt gratitude to the 14 Democratic state senators who left Wisconsin Feb. 17 rather than allow Gov. Scott Walker to pass a sham budget bill taking from state and local workers the right to bargain for good middle-class jobs.

Gov. Walker and state Republicans may be sending them $100-a-day fines and arrest warrants, but take a look at some Facebook and phone messages real people are sending the brave Wisconsin 14