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Recall Hansen Group Seeks TRO Against Harassment of Petition Signers

Recall Hansen Group Seeks TRO Against Harassment of Petition Signers

I reported on Friday how Democrats were using call centers to make suggestive and misleading “push-calls” to people who signed recall petitions against Democratic State Senator Robert Wirch. 

The problem apparently is not limited to Wirch. 

A group which filed recall petitions against Democratic Senator David Hansen has filed for a temporary restraining order, as reported by JSOnline:

A man who headed a recall effort against state Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the state Democratic Party from harassing people who signed or circulated petitions to recall Hansen.

David Vander Leest, the representative of the Recall Dave Hansen committee, filed his request for a TRO in Brown County on Monday. A hearing was set for May 16.

Vander Leest said some people who signed the petition have gotten as many as 10 calls from people seeking to see if they were misled into signing the petitions.

Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski didn’t return a call seeking comment, but he told WisPolitics.com that the filing was a “joke,” and denied the calls were harassing. He said the party hired a firm to call those who signed the petitions because of concerns signatures were collected fraudulently, and the calls cease once someone answers to respond.

The TRO application is mostly symbolic, because the damage is done and the TRO hearing will not take place until May 16.  Nonetheless, it does show how desperate Democrats in Wisconsin have become after the heady days when they thought Kloppenburg would win the Supreme Court nomination and Judge Sumi threw a monkey wrench into the legislative process.

Democrats must be very frustrated, because Republicans have managed to file sufficient recall petitions against three Democrats.

While Democrats sought to recall eight Republicans, two of those efforts failed with the deadlines passing yesterday.  That reduces to six the number of Republicans subject to recall efforts.

Also, a University of Wisconsin Professor also was caught trying to get his students in class to sign a recall petition against a Republican (listen to his classroom antics here).  The University is taking “corrective action.”

Out. Of. Control.

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Comments

Question: how did the DNC of Wisconsin get the names of those who signed the petitions?

I read that some of the petitions were stolen. Would any of these lists and calls be related to the stolen petitions?

Hmmmm………

Messes With Texas | May 3, 2011 at 6:05 pm

I wonder if the corrective action will be remedial instruction in MSYDGC, (Making Sure You Don't Get Caught). There had to be any number of ways the Professor could have coerced his students with sufficient subtlety so that a simple amateur recording could not ensnare him. What happened to leftist craftsmanship. I am disappointed.

What I find discouraging is that so many commenters at jsonline found nothing wrong with what the instructor did. At my former university, which is a public school, on-th-job political activity by a faculty member would be a firing offense, as it is illegal for state employees to engage in political activity while working. Some of the commenters excused the instructor's outrageous behavior, claiming there was no coercion of the students. However, as I interpret the audio recording, students were told to leave the classroom in order to sign the petition. Of course the instructor was able to see who got up to leave and who remained behind in their seats. If that isn't implicit coercion and a hostile educational environment, I don't know what is. IMO, the Republican Party should demand an investigation by the Federal Dept. of Education and the Federal DOJ.

As I should have included in my last post, you can tell from the audio recording that the instructor knew what he was doing was wrong. Repeatedly he would start to say "we", then he would pause for a moment in order to backtrack, trying with little sincerity or success to distance himself from the petition drive against the Republican legislators. Also note his comment that many other faculty were engaged in the same petition drive, so his inappropriate use of the classroom for political activity was not just an isolated incident on campus. I wonder what are the odds any corrective action has been taken against other faculty who might have used their classrooms to promote the recall petitions?

Does the professor, when pressuring students to sign, say anything like "That's alright, no pressure, just checking." Isn't that the cue for the person in authority to press a red button? Or was that a global warming ad? Leftist do seem to have tendencies, and not very nice ones at that. Have they ever heard of electronic recording devices?