Tuesdays with Wisconsin – Recall Elections Special Edition

Just When Everyone Needed a Break from Politics, Along Comes This



Here They Come,
Well, except for that guy



It is now August in Wisconsin (and everywhere else it seems) and in Wisconsin everyone's thoughts turn to the Green Bay Packers.  Training camp starts up, the rookies look good and speculation abounds about the coming season.  The Green Bay Packers are one of the great sports stories in the nation.  A small town has hung on to their pro football team despite the pressures to move it to a more lucrative market, and even forced the NFL to make an exception to its rule that its teams must be owned by egomaniacal greedy wealthy business folks who view the public only as a source of funds for building football stadiums.

But Last winter and spring a furor broke out in Wisconsin as the newly elected Governor, Republican Scott Walker and the newly elected Republican legislators pushed through legislation severely curtailing collective bargaining in the state.  Having failed to tell the voters that this was their plan during the campaign, a large group of voters became visibly upset.

The result is nine recall elections, involving six Republican seats and three Democratic seats in the State Senate.  One Democratic legislator survived the recall election, and now six Republican seats are on deck for Tuesday, with two more Democratic seats up the following Tuesday.

Here is the graphic on the recall elections from the Wisconsin State Journal.


 

The races have been heated.  Tons of money, far more than even a regular term election have been thrown into the races.  Republicans have tried to make the races a referendum on President Obama. (Which should give some pause to Mr. Obama’s crack campaign staff. If the opposition feels they can make gains by linking Mr. Obama to local candidates, what are you doing wrong?)



This does not look right for Dems



A win by Democrats would require a net gain of three seats, which would give them a one vote control of the State Senate.  That will have very little effect on the governance of Wisconsin, as the House and the Governor’s office would still be controlled by Republicans.  It would, however, inject a much needed jolt to a party that is reeling.

By the same logic a loss would be potentially devastating. It would signal that while voters are unhappy with Republicans they are not so unhappy that they will be turning them out of office.  And for Mr. Obama, where winning Wisconsin is a key to winning re-election, the message of a loss would be quite clear.