Update: Wisconsin state Senator (R) recalls

So far in Wisconsin, we have four Republican Senators who will, apparently, face recall elections.  These Senators all have had recall petitions filed in Madison with the Government Accountability Board (GAB).  The newest “victims” are Luther Olsen of Ripon and Sheila Harsdorf of Hudson/River Falls, joining earlier Senators Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) and Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac).    Note this link isn’t perfect but it should take you to the story about Olson:

http://www.startribune.com/politics/120060409.html?source=error

24,000 signatures were turned in to recall Luther Olsen, which is quite a bit more than the 14,733 signatures needed.  This article also points out that the previous Republican state Senators being recalled, Dan Kapanke and Randy Hopper, are challenging the signatures and procedures.

As for Sheila Harsdorf, the petitions to recall her were filed today also.

http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_17884172?source=rss

This story, from the Twin Cities’ Pioneer Press, states that the Harsdorf recall committee turned in over 23,000 signatures when they needed only 15,744.  This follows suit with the other recalls to date; basically, every Republican state Senator where the petitions have already been turned in has had at least 5,000 additional signatures to guard against any signatures being stricken due to ineligibility.

Here’s a really good article from the Hudson Star-Observer, available at http://www.hudsonstarobserver.com/event/article/id/42665/.  A relevant quote from this article:

(New Richland High School teacher Rich) Herron was one of four speakers at Monday evening’s rally.

He began by relating how he got involved in the petition drive.

Four months earlier, he said, he had been telling a co-worker how truly happy we was with his career and the work he was doing with at-risk students.

Then Gov. Scott Walker unveiled the budget repair bill that would strip public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights and reduce spending on education and programs to assist the disadvantaged, Herron said.

“And I had the naïve hope that sanity and cooler heads were going to prevail,” he said. “…I kept waiting. Then I watched hundreds of thousands of people descend on Madison, my family among them, thinking they would have to listen to us. We pleaded and we begged, and yeah, sometimes we yelled. But somewhere in there I realized they never intended to listen to us. They never intended to concede anything.”

This is why people like Herron got involved.

Going on:

Herron described picking up petition sheets at a Hudson coffee shop in early March. He said that after going door-to-door in Hudson for two hours and collecting 10 signatures, he knew he needed a better plan.

“So my family and I, you know, the well-funded union machine that we are – outside agitators from New Richmond – spent $83 on some signs and a canopy,” Herron related.

The crowd laughed at the reference to Sen. Harsdorf’s claims that outside union officials are behind the effort to oust her.

Herron said he and other volunteers “sat out in the wind and snow in New Richmond,” and in a few days had 500 signatures. Eventually, 1,600 New Richmond-area residents signed the petition, he said.

Herron said the people he remembers best are the Republicans who signed.

One off-duty police officer said he had driven past him for four days, and each time wrestled over whether he should sign.

“The reason I am, is because wrong is wrong,” the officer reportedly told Herron.

And that, exactly, is why so many people of all parties in Wisconsin are astonished and disgusted at Republican Governor Scott Walker and his eighteen Republican state Senators.

This is a state-wide movement that’s not about Democrats, not about Republicans, not about Independents — it’s about simple fairness.  Period.

We didn’t get it, and we deserve it.  Which is why all of these Republican Senators eligible for recall right now will be recalled.

Once again, I say that persistence is absolutely important.  Look at these folks who put together the recalls.  They started on March 3, 2011, were told they had no chance to get enough signatures (1/4 of the total of the voters in the last election was what was needed, which is a high number) and shouldn’t even bother because “recalls rarely work.”  Yet now, four Republican state Senators will face recall elections until/unless signatures are stricken or the entire process is invalidated (that latter tactic is what Dan Kapanke, R-La Crosse, is trying.  I doubt he will succeed, but if he does, the Recall Kapanke folks believe they can gather enough signatures again very easily), and it’s all due to their vote on Governor Scott Walker’s “budget-repair bill,” which caused massive protests throughout the state (not just in Madison; that was just where it was the most widely-reported). 

Eighteen Republican Senators voted “yes” on that bill, with all fourteen Democratic Senators still out of the state in Illinois protesting at that time who would’ve voted no.  One Republican Senator, Dale Schultz of Richland Center, had the courage to vote “no.”  Schultz now is the only Republican Senator who is likely to hold his seat without facing a recall election.

So now, we in Wisconsin can be pleased — four Senators, at the same time, will face recall elections, the first time in American history it’s ever happened.  But the Republicans should not believe this will be the end, because I can assure you, it won’t be.

First, we have four more Republican state Senators — Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay), Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) and Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) — who are eligible for recall right now.  Signatures are still being gathered there and I am confident that several more of these Republicans will be recalled due to their vote on the controversial “budget-repair” bill.

Next, while the other ten Republican state Senators who voted for that bill are ineligible for recall now, that does not mean they will not be recalled later. 

I, for one, plan to help recall Van Wanggaard, my sitting Republican Senator who, as I’ve said before, is a retired policeman and a former member of the policeman’s union, yet voted against collective bargaining when he cast a vote for that “budget-repair bill.”  I find that highly hypocritical at best, shameful at worst, and believe that Wanggaard must go.

And I’ve heard from other friends in other parts of the state, who will recall their Republican Senator at first opportunity (this November, we can start to gather signatures) — this isn’t over.  (Oh, no.  This definitely isn’t over.)  And it won’t be until Governor Scott Walker, himself, is recalled.