Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Seven Wisconsin Republican Senators Likely Recalled

The Post Crescent reports that organizers for the recall of Senator Robert Cowles will file on Thursday more than enough signatures to trigger a recall election. That makes Cowles the sixth Republican senator to likely face a recall election.

A DailyKos diary reports a Facebook announcement by the organizers for the recall of Senator Glenn Grothman for a post-canvass celebration. This may indicate they have enough signatures to file the recall petition, but that's the only info I've been able to find. As of April 27th, the organizers are not ready to file a recall petition and are still collecting signatures, see here for ways to help.

Last week, petitions were filed for the recall of Republican Senators Olsen, Harsdorf and Darling. The recall petitions for Republican Senators Kapanke and Hopper were filed a couple weeks before. So even without Grothman, Wisconsin has filed petitions to recall six of its Republican senators. This unprecedented momentum shows just how strongly Wisconsin feels about workers' rights.

The Koch brothers and the Republicans actually began recalling eight Democrat senators before the Democrats started recalling the Republican 8. However, they've only been able to collect enough signatures to file recall petitions for three Democrats. In fact, the Republicans have to submit their signatures for seven of their eight recall efforts by 5pm today (some of the petitions had to be or were filed earlier). So, it looks like the Koch brothers and the Republicans will be able to recall at most three Democrats.

The Wisconsin Democrats are calling into question the means for which the signatures were collected. Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin Mike Tate said that he guarantees "there will be fraudulent signatures turned in." So, there may be significant challenges to the three recalls of Democrat senators, but I haven't seen any new information since last week Thursday. dane101 has some more details including photos of an "Out To Lunch" sign and other evidence of unattended petitions.

Tate also said that the signatures to recall the Republican 8 were almost entirely collected by volunteers with paid organizers there to oversee while Republicans hired out-of-state workers to collect signatures. The magnitude of Wisconsinites who support democracy and workers' rights is becoming very clear. Keep up the good fight!

You can thank the thousands of people who have helped recall the Republican 8 here.

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The quickest most effective way Wisconsin can move Forward is to recall all of the Republican 8, but we only have until May 2nd (Sunday, May 1st really). So the two remaining efforts can use any and all help they can get
We don't have much time. So, please start thinking about making plans to spend just a few hours this weekend in one of these two districts if you're not available to help during the week. Just by talking to people about the issues will help keep the momentum going.

Wisconsin needs you.

Updated: (April 27, 2:25pm) I updated the status on the recall effort for Senator Glenn Grothman, because the organizers have NOT collected enough signatures yet. See here for information on ways you can help these last two efforts.

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