Originally Posted By skinnerbox This is in response to Wednesday night's vote in the Wisconsin State Senate. Originally, efforts were already underway to recall eight of the GOP Senators. Now, activists are focusing on six. Three of the six - Randy Hooper, Alberta Darling, and Dan Kapanke - won by the slimmest of margins, and are considered very vulnerable to recall. The other six - Robert Cowles, Sheila Harsdorf, and Luther Olsen - won't be as simple. But only three Republicans need to lose their seats for Senate control to switch to the Dems. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/10/democrats-labor-set-their_n_834232.html" target="_blank">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...232.html</a> <> WASHINGTON -- The chaos that accompanied Wednesday night’s abrupt passage of Gov. Scott Walker's (R-Wis.) controversial anti-collective bargaining legislation gave way on Thursday to a series of strategy sessions by aggrieved parties plotting out a response. A cadre of labor groups, progressive institutions, and campaign arms began informally coordinating a comprehensive pushback that some described as even more critical than the legislative battle itself. The most dramatic of these moves is acceleration of a campaign to recall Wisconsin Republican state senators who ended up backing not only the collective bargaining bill but also the backdoor parliamentary maneuvers used to pass it. Union officials and progressive activists on the ground in Wisconsin say that six specific lawmakers have been targeted for recall (before Wednesday night that number had been eight). Of those, three were considered top tier “gets:” Sen. Randy Hopper (District 18) who won his last election by 184 votes, Sen. Alberta Darling (District 8) who won her last election with 51 percent of the vote, and Sen. Dan Kapanke (District 32) who also won his last election with 51 percent of the vote, in a district where President Obama won 61 percent of the vote in 2008. The other three lawmakers on the list were Sen. Robert Cowles (District 2), Sheila Harsdorf (District 10), and Luther Olsen (District 14). “Without full capitulation this is the best possible political outcome,” said one top-ranking labor official, trying to put a good spin on a damaging development. “It is going to drive [Walker’s] negatives over 65 [percent] and we are looking at possibly winning six recall elections” Earlier in the day, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka made similar overtures following a speech at the National Press Club. “We are helping to organize the process,” he told a small group of reporters. “They are doing it on the ground there and we are helping them do it on the ground. These are Wisconsinites. They are serious about this. This isn’t us going to them saying maybe we ought to recall, this is them saying to us we are going to recall them.” In terms of timing, the recall process began well before Wednesday night’s vote. But Walker’s decision to ram through his bill with 14 Senate Democrats still decamped in Illinois added urgency to the effort. In a memo distributed by labor officials on the ground in Wisconsin and passed along to The Huffington Post, it was noted that the Wisconsin Democratic Party had already raised $800,000 for its recall effort, “with nearly $250,000 of that coming since Walker and Republicans’ anti-democratic hijacking of the Senate” on Wednesday. The memo also pointed out that two polls, conducted by Survey USA and paid for by MoveOn.org, had Hopper and Kapanke losing a recall election in their districts, “and that polling was conducted before last night’s … chicanery.” Grassroots forces aren’t the only ones at play. Officials at various campaign committees in Washington D.C. told The Huffington Post that they too would be lending their resources to the efforts. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee was poised to help the Wisconsin State party in gather signatures, a function that an aide described as a bit of new ground for the committee. “[T]he recall elections that may take place in Wisconsin in fact would be the first recall elections with which the DLCC has been involved.” <> More at the link.
Originally Posted By Tony C I would imagine the teabaggers will want to recall the 14 heroes who went to Illinois.
Originally Posted By Princessjenn5795 ^^ They might, on a national level, but in Wisconsin those 14 are sort of heros. With even the conservative citizen of the state largely against the union killing, I think those guys are pretty safe. The Republicans, on the other hand, ought to be quaking right about now. They will be out of a job soon.
Originally Posted By Labuda Wanna hear what kills me? A Mormon group (I'm assuming - they're from Utah) are trying to get some Democratic senators in WI recalled. OY! <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/02/10198/utah-group-seeks-recall-wisconsin-democratic-senators" target="_blank">http://www.prwatch.org/news/20...senators</a> Josh, if you're reading this: WHY THE HECK DO YOUR PEOPLE THINK THEY HAVE ANY BUSINESS MESSING WITH GROUPS AND PEOPLE OUTSIDE OF UTAH?!?!?!!?
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