or a way to motivate the opposition to Walker?
You be the judge. The argument is that anti-Walker forces, particularly the younger newer voters, just aren’t motivated.
From Wade Rathke, founder of ACORN, Huge Obstacles to Beating Scott Walker in Wisconsin Recall:
The life-and-death struggle in Wisconsin to turn back the radical and sweeping rightwing program of Governor Scott Walker being waged by progressive forces is entering another set of critical challenges…
The Democratic primary is generating very little interest it seems and Walker has already spent millions with a huge bank account raised in readiness assiduously around the country as progressives and unions were mounting the recall petition campaign against him. My casual observation about the invisibility of the campaign concretized as part of the mountain campaigners are trying to climb to arouse interest in the campaign.
I sat through an earnest and fascinating meeting at the Blatz Brewery building where Caroline Murray, organizing director for Van Jones’ Rebuild the Dream and veteran community organizer and friend, was meeting with union representatives, the League of Young Voters, community-based organizations connected with the Gamaliel network, Wisconsin Citizen Action, and Voces de Frontera and various DJ’s, artists, and others connected to the Milwaukee community, to try and figure out an event between the primary and the general election that might motivate “millennial” young voters to actually connect with the importance of getting out to vote by combining art, culture, and politics. There was lots of head shaking assent about the importance of motivating these newer voters and a willingness to try new things, but skepticism on the level of buy-in from the community and whether the impact would be equal to the effort.
Such gloom is consistent with recent polling showing Walker in a solid — but not safe — position versus each of his two most likely opponents.
Keep in mind that the June 5 election is after the end of the semester in Wisconsin public universities, so the hordes of student voters in Madison will not arrive this time like they did for the Prosser-Kloppenburg election (and even then it fell short).
Hope.
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Rathke is a true enemy of America. With a decent DOJ he would have been investigated for his role in avoiding the defunding of ACORN legislation.
There are few people on whom I would wish despondency.
Wade Rathke tops that short list.
Well…he’s damn close…
To me, the question in Wisconsin is whether or not perpetual election fatigue will stifle turnout to the point that the margin of victory can overcome the dems from stealing it.
If it’s within a recount margin…forget it-Al Franken will be in Madison screaming about making “every vote count”.
BTW- How’s Obama polling over there?
Must think he’s safe–otherwise he’d be telling the unions to quit wasting his money on Walker, and use it on Romney.
According to RealClearPolitics aggregated polls, it’s Obama @ 51.3/Romney @ 39.5
Wisconsin: Romney vs. Obama
Man, Rathke is a terrible writer — I can barely read that sh**.
GIGO
I worked on that Verify the Vote project analyzing names on the petitions for recall after you posted the link here. I have to say there were loads of students on the pages I worked on. If they are not going to be in school, that is a huge plus.
I hope they spend a lot of money on this effort though, it will less they have to spend in the general. I may be too optimistic but I think this was a wasted effort on the part of the unions.
Not to be a wet blanket, but I have a concern.
If the WI economy has improved enough to save Walker, maybe the national economy will be good enough to save Obama.
Don’t you think the same people who organized the hordes of students to vote in the Prosser-Kloppenburg fiasco will organize them again to vote absentee before they go home?
That’s a provocative question – Primary is May 8th; last day of exams at UW-Madison is May 19th, and Recall election is June 5th.
A few points: most of those students will probably vote for Falk (she’s from Madison) on May 8th; if she loses (highly likely), they will be dispirited and could lose interest in the remainder of the race. If she wins the primary (which would be a great outcome for Walker)it won’t make any difference how many vote, Walker wins anyway. I think it will be hard to connect with and motivate students who are already dispirited to go through the process of requesting absentee ballots & then submitting them, during the time period where they are dealing with final exams, vacating living arrangements, traveling home, reconnecting with family & friends, etc.
I put this on the tip line the other day, but it seemed to have gotten lost in the shuffle – thought it would be of interest to LI readers because there are also 4 Republican Senators up for recall.
Poll: Wisconsin Republicans Lead In State Senate Recalls
A new round of polls in Wisconsin by Daily Kos/Public Policy Polling shows an uphill climb for Democrats in their new effort to recall their way to a majority in the state Senate.
In the three races officially targeted by state Democrats: Republican state Sen. Van Wanggaard edges Democratic former Sen. John Lehman 48 percent to 46 percent, in a rematch from their 2010 race. The other races are not as close: Republican State Sen. Terry Moulton leads Dem former state Rep. Kristin Dexter 51 percent to 41 percent. In the open race where GOP state Sen. Pam Galloway resigned, GOP state Rep. Jerry Petrowski leads Dem state Rep. Donna Seidel 51 percent to 37 percent.
In a race where local organizers for the effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker decided to take an extra initiative, state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald leads recall organizer Lori Compas 54 percent to 40 percent.
Van Jones is a communist, and I say that not because he’s to the left of me and I disagree with him, but because he says he is.
I can just imagine the uproar if a Tea Party leader had an admitted fascist background. Then again, the instigator of Occupy [Your Town] had an anti-Semitic background and nobody seemed to mind that, at least in Occupy Whatever.
It would require quite a bit of cognitive dissonance for a fascist to truly be part of the Tea Party, since fascists (and Nazis) are close kin to Socialists (and progressives) whereas the Tea Party is an example of classical Liberalism.
He doesn’t say he is a communist; he says he was one. You clearly don’t believe he changed significantly, and I agree with you, but it’s not true that he says he is one.
Soviet military doctrine states that you reinforce victory, not defeat.
So, what will the Unions (commies) do?
The argument is that anti-Walker forces, particularly the younger newer voters, just aren’t motivated.
That may also be a concern to the Obama campaign:
Is Obama in Trouble With Young Voters?
President Obama could be in big trouble when it comes to the youth vote, according to a new poll.
Less than half of 18-to-24-year-old voters want Obama to win reelection, and he leads a generic Republican candidate by just 7 percentage points, according to a survey of youth voter attitudes released Thursday by the Public Religion Research Institute and Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.
That single-digit lead represents a dramatic drop from 2008, when Obama won the votes of that age group by a 34-point margin over John McCain — 66 percent to 32 percent — according to exit polls.
It should be a concern for the Obama campaign. And it could be made an even bigger concern if Romney and the Republicans can effectively spell out the generational theft Obama is committing.
http://beatbarack.blogspot.com/2012/01/debt-generation.html
Young people have been among the hardest-hit groups by Obamanomics. Unemployment is very high and more and more college grads spend a year or more finding a job (often not in their field of study) and end up staying or moving back home with parents.
They aren’t really any smarter, just a bit more jaded, which will keep the turnout down.
This is why Obama seems to be refusing to play to the middle. If he can’t get young people, blacks, and single women excited and enthusiastic to turn out, he has no chance at all.
At dinner last night there was a teenager who was looking forward to her opportunity to vote for the first time. The conversation came around to Obama and she volunteered that it seemed among the 18-22 cohort there was little excitement for Obama.
Just an anecdote and not a particularly surprising one other than this young woman attends one of the most exclusive private schools in our deep blue village of Seattle.
As a resident of notheast Wisconsin, about 120 miles from Madison, I would like to note that, while Wisconsin is a highly centralized state with Madison holding great sway over much of the rest of the state, most of the voters live elsewhere. I see far more “I stand with Walker” signs on front yards around us than “Recall Walker” bumper stickers. For some reason, there are no yard signs opposing Walker.
Walker has done a great job and deserves to continue as Governor.
I’m encouraged!
Fatigue has to have an effect, even on union enthusiasm (at least at the worker/protestor level). You just can’t maintain a high level of outrage among a large population for an extended period of time.
This whole big budget fight started shortly after Walker’s 2010 election – in which he pledged to basically do just what he proposed to deal with a huge budget shortfall. Democratic Senators left the state to avoid a quorum, the Capitol was “occupied” starting back last January, this stuff has been going on and except for a couple of Senate recalls lost last year, Walker and the GOP have been winning all the battles.
The favorite for the Democratic recall nominee is the Mayor of Milwaukee who balanced his city budget using the Walker reforms. How can Democrats and unionists keep their spirits and energy up after loss after loss?