Huge Victory For Walker Recall Proponents

An enthusiastic Republican base, combined with a lot of voter dissatisfaction over the economy and the lack of jobs, caused an electoral disaster for Democrats all across this nation in 2010. But it was especially disastrous for the people of Wisconsin, where a corporate funded and owned candidate (Scott Walker) won a narrow victory to become the governor of that state.

He immediately launched a war against the citizens of Wisconsin, trying to eliminate union rights and state benefits of state employees, and making cuts in many programs that are designed to help ordinary Wisconsinites -- while proposing new tax breaks and other perks for corporate interests. The people rebelled against Walker with huge demonstrations, but there was little they could do until he had completed his first year in office.

As soon as Walker had completed his first year in office, a recall petition was started. Many thought it would be very difficult to get the required number of signatures from Wisconsin residents to force Walker into a recall election, since it required a number of signatures equal to 25% of the votes cast in the last election for governor. There were slightly more than 2 million votes cast in that election, so about 540,208 signatures were needed (out of the 4.4 million Wisconsin citizens eligible to vote) -- a fairly onerous requirement.

But the 25% requirement proved to be no obstacle at all for the good people of Wisconsin. before the deadline was up, the people turned in more than 1,000,000 signatures -- nearly double the amount needed to trigger the recall election. Republicans have hired thousands of party workers to scan the signatures and try to find duplicates or ineligible people. It is highly unlikely they will be able to find enough mistakes to invalidate the recall election -- since they would have to throw out about half of all the signatures, and those supporting the recall have already vetted the petitions and tossed out any duplicates they could find.

It is not easy to recall a sitting governor in the United States. It has only happened twice in this country's history -- Lynn Frazier in North Dakota in 1921 and Gray Davis in California in 2003. But the ease with which the Recall Walker movement got over 1,000,000 signatures makes me think Walker will probably become the third governor to be recalled. Walker has received millions in out-of-state corporate money to fight his recall, but the people of Wisconsin are angry enough that all that money is likely to do is give Walker a very expensive defeat.

I applaud the efforts of the people of Wisconsin, and wish them the best of luck in their efforts to unseat the right-wing fool currently inhabiting the governor's office in their beautiful state.