Yes, you are celebrating. But the Wisconsin Senate recall elections are not over.
Republicans have a chance to deliver a political coup de grâce to the national union and Democratic intimidation tactics next Tuesday when there are two elections seeking to recall Democratic State Senators Robert Wirch and James Holperin. These two were among the fleebaggers who ran away to Illinois..
The Recall Wirch campaign has been a focus here for months. The Republican challenger is Jonathan Steitz.
The challenger to Holperin is Kim Simac.
Republicans need to turn out in force, and with a demoralized Democratic base, anything is possible.
Update: Next week’s recall elections may be even more important than I thought, since one group is claiming that a “RINO” state senator (Dale Schultz, who voted against the collective bargaining bill) is a risk to switch parties, which would flip the Senate unless Republicans take back one more seat. The Wisconsin State Journal referred to Schultz as one of the “ultimate winners” of last night’s vote because it puts him in the driver’s seat.
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Another $ contribution to the Tea Party Express. How do we combat millions and millions and millions of union and liberal dollars? To overcome that hurdle has been AMAZING. Word was Obama’s people were all over the place during the runup.
Let’s hope these two fleebaggers are turned out, but why are they ALL not being recalled? If ever I saw a gross dereliction of duty that was one. Not one of those politicians who ran away rather than staying and doing their duty should still be serving.
Since you’re following this a lot closer than I can, Professor, should we donate to the individual campaigns or is there some umbrella organization like there was for the House? Thanks.
Frontline Wisconsin (http://www.frontlinewisconsin.com/) was a group helping all the Republicans subject to recall, but not sure if they are helping in the recall effort against Democrats. So I would donate to the individual candidate campaigns to be sure. (If other readers have other info, please post)
That would be really stupid of that RINO, considering the PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN again and again.
But then, he’s a RINO.
Sorry – not the House, the recall election they just had. (Never said I was smart. 🙁 )
Redistricting changes were signed into law yesterday.
Here’s an article on it that contains maps of the new Congressional Districts and State Senate districts:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/125225179.html
I knew there was one Republican holdout of Walker’s collective bargaining reform. I was hoping it was one of the two who lost in yesterday’s election.
Hope the Republicans don’t take the hold on the Senate for granted and not turn out next week. The fleabaggers need to be punished whether control of the Senate flipped or not. Vote them out, Wisconsin.
[…] PROF JACOBSON, A REMINDER: The Wisconsin Recalls Are Not Over. “Republicans have a chance to deliver a political coup de grâce to the national union and […]
[…] as completely as they could have. Democrats won two of the 6 seats they targeted for recall but will face two recall elections of their own next week. The most likely result of the Great Wisconsin Hissy Fit is that Democrats will have […]
For those of us who may not have money to give, but could get up to Wisconsin to help (phone-bank, whatever), if anyone has any clues on who to get in touch with, please post it here! Thanks.
Dale Schultz would be well advised to look at the way State Senator Mary Panzer (Republican, Chair of State Joint Finance Committee, if I recall) was handled when the Republicans threw her under the bus for being a “RINO”. Don’t know the dynamics of Schultz’ district, but what happened to Mary Panzer is at the last minute (the weekend before the deadline to file), State Rep. Glen Grothman collected enough signatures to do a primary challenge and blew her out of the water. Glen was targeted for recall this go-around, but Dems could not generate enough signatures.
Since we have had so damn many recalls already, what’s one more, and who’s to say that the Republicans would not go “all in” against Schultz if he switched parties?
IMHO donate to the individual campaigns, time is short, they know their needs best. Simac in particular seems to be running a good campaign which might militate for Steitz. On the other hand her aggressive campaign deserves reward. I just gave to both. It looks like a brutal fight, gloves off.
http://vilas.wisgop.info/2011/07/07/wisconsin-family-action-pac-endorses-kim-simac/
[…] only way this could get any better is if there were Democrats up for recall. Oh, wait. Republicans have a chance to deliver a political coup de grâce to the national union and […]
Going back to the 2008 Wisconsin State Senate election results, Wirch won his senate seat by some 34 pts, while Holperin eeked out a 2 pt victory.
I would say the Holperin seat (vs Republican challenger Kim Simac) is in play..
[…] last night when the unions failed to oust Republican control of the state senate. And it’s not over yet. Next Tuesday will be the Democrat side of the recall elections when they must defend two of […]
Dale Schultz should be mindful of the fact that, after all the hoopla in Dane County, Ed Schultz went home empty last night.
(Scroll down to his photo on this Althouse post from last night.)
I think that a lot of what we’re going to see next week in terms of turnout will depend on what happens in the news, the markets and the local Wisconsin media. The more unstable the political climate, the more it helps the challengers and hurts the incumbents, because as we saw in 2008 and 2010, angry people vote for “change.”
As Aarradin noted above, the Wisconsin Legislature has now publicly proposed their redrawn election maps. The Democrat party of Wisconsin is unhappy about them (hence, the lawsuit, which I think is baseless, but will keep the point in the public eye at least for a while).
It also depends on if the media tries to make it the public concept that “those Evil Republicans have redrawn the districts to eliminate Democrats who protect the little guy, so support us in the recall so we can try to delay their EVIL scheme as long as possible.”
As with all elections, it all comes down to turnout. The Democrat turnout will be somewhat depressed due to their loss this week to take the Senate, so likely a lot of them will stay home under the impression that “it doesn’t matter anyway.”
Holperin is DEFINITELY vulnerable. The ONLY county in his district that didn’t vote AGAINST Russ Feingold in the 2010 election cycle was Menominee, but in that county the vote ratio for Holperin in 2008 was 10:1 of 1100 votes. The Republicans need to get the turnout up in Florence, Langlade and Lincoln and Marinette counties (Counties Holperin LOST in 2008, even with the Democrat party sweeping the nation). If the Republican party can do that, they’ll win Holperin’s seat.
Wirch is going to be a different experience. The problem with recalling Wirch is the major population center of Kenosha County. The only wards the 2008 Republican won in Kenosha County were Genoa City Village Wards 4 & 5 and Kenosha wards 35, 39, 45 and 48, and those had a sum total of 252 votes. In most of the bottom 34 Kenosha Wards, Wirch won by over 2:1. If the Republicans want to win against Wirch, they need to dramatically depress Democrat turnout in the county and dramatically amp up Republican turnout.
The Wisconsin Legislature realizes that Kenosha County is a lost cause, which is why in the new map they’ve cracked and packed it in order to limit the Democrat input (which is why Wirch is hollering, because he doesn’t actually want to LIVE with the voters he purports to “represent” and he KNOWS he CAN’T win in the District his house now sits in.
Wirch may be a lost cause simply because the inner-city voters are institutionally inclined to pull the (D) lever. But Jonathan Steitz may be able to pull it off. We’ll find out next week.
Markos at Daily Kos is calling yesterday a victory … for Democrats.
Or course he is. Markos is a tool and a mouthpiece of the Democrat party. The sole and only reason he exists is to try to rouse the petulant Democrat base with his new version of the “youth in revolt” schtick. He’s there to play cheerleader.
The “recall Walker” campaigns are also calling it a victory, saying that it shows there is sufficient backlash to recall Governor Walker.
They’re all going “YEAH, YEAH” so that they don’t have to face the reality that they actually LOST horribly by not being able to retake control of the Wisconsin Senate, after all their chanting, screaming, protesting and intimidation, oh, and let us not forget MILLIONS of dollars of campaign spending. One of the two Democrat Candidates only just barely squeaked out a win (for which the Republicans ought to be KICKING themselves), and I think it likely that the District 12 Democrat is going to lose next Tuesday.
DONATE FOR NEXT WEEK’S WI BATTLE! Links to the Simac and Steitz campaign can me found HERE.
Linked: ‘Republicans Holds Four of Six Contested Seats in Wisconsin Recall Elections’.
I thought the minority Party that held government hostage from enacting their agenda were called terrorists…so it would be fleabagging terrorists not just fleabaggers
Good information, Chuck. Thanks.
Donations sent. 😀
Senator Glenn Grothman indicates in an email that Dale Schult has absolutely no intention of changing parties.
[…] As William Jacobson reminds us, two of the three recalls of Democrat Senators get voted on next week. Both of them were among the Fleebaggers, obviously, but beyond message-sending about failure to do their jobs, there’s another reason it’s important to get out there and get rid of these people: Update: Next week’s recall elections may be even more important than I thought, since one group is claiming that a “RINO” state senator (Dale Schultz, who voted against the collective bargaining bill) is a risk to switch parties, which would flip the Senate unless Republicans take back one more seat. The Wisconsin State Journal referred to Schultz as one of the “ultimate winners” of last night’s vote because it puts him in the driver’s seat. […]