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Wisconsin Recall Elections Timeline

Posted by: Linda Carbonell on July 2, 2011.

07-02-2011 by Linda S. Carbonell

It falls under the heading of “oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive….” Republicans in Wisconsin have put themselves into primary races as Democrats to delay the final recall elections, turning this simple little process of an incumbent re-running a race that he/she won in November into a two-month-marathon. Everyone knows that these “primaries” are faked. Everyone knows it’s just being done to put some cooling-off time between that heinous budget vote and the recall elections they caused, but, let’s all pretend that phoney-baloney-Dem-primary candidate in the 10^th District, Isaac Weix, is telling the truth when he says that his candidacy gives the voters more time to “vet” the real Democratic candidate Shelly Moore, and that “We’re not trying to fool any voters. There is nothing underhanded about this.” Even for a state noted for its bovine population, this one reeks of too much fertilisant au naturel.

Fortunately, no one has been able to explain to Republicans that the more they mess around with the election process, whether its with phoney primary candidates or legislating new barriers to voting, the more they discredit themselves in the minds of the majority of American voters who have not been brainwashed into believing that we have rampant voter fraud in this country. Hopefully, this flagrant disdain for the intelligence and integrity of Wisconsin’s voters is going to backfire faster than a fermenting cow. (No disrespect, Wisconsin. I live in Vermont. Cow jokes come naturally around here.)

Aside from the dates of the various elections, which we’ll get to shortly, the one thing of note in this is the way the Republican race to unseat incumbent Dave Hansen of the 30^th Senate District has turned out. John Nygren lost his bid to run against David Vanderleest for the Republican nomination because he didn’t get enough signatures. That leaves VanderLeest to run against Hansen. The Wisconsin Republican Party may wish they had given more thought to who they were endorsing. VanderLeest has a rather spotty background with a few legal difficulties – like accusations of domestic assault, his real estate company skipping out on loans, unpaid fines for building code violations; and then there’s the ones he got a plea deal for – intimidating a witness, misdemeanor battery and bail-jumping. So, when VanderLeet says, “I represent the average person who’s struggling,” why do I hear Rod Blagojevich’s voice?

Okay, down to the nitty-gritty. There are nine districts involved and four dates. The following is the best map I could find of Wisconsin’ Senate districts.

The incumbents and their districts are:

Robert Cowles, R-2^nd district (dark blue area to left of Lake Michigan inlet, mostly rural)

Alberta Darling, R-8^th district (little dark blue area directly left of “L” in Lake, lakeside suburban)

Sheila Harsdorf, R-10^th district (yellow area extreme left, mostly rural)

Jim Holperin, D-12^th district (big yellow area upper right, rural + city of Rhinelander)

Luther Olsen, R-14^th district (teal area center left, rural + city of Wisconsin Dells)

Randy Hopper, R-18^th district (dark blue area left of 14^th , Oshkosh )

Robert Wirch, D-22^nd district (little dark blue area lower left, Burlington, Kenosha)

Dave Hansen, D-30^th district (green area right of Lake Michigan inlet, Green Bay)

Dan Kapanke, R-32^nd district (green area lower right, fural + LaCrosse, Prairie du Chien)

No matter what the rural/town/city ratio, the important thing to remember is that all of the six recall petitions for the Republicans met their required signatures with loads to spare very quickly, whereas the recall petitions for the Democrats were down to the wire. No third party or independent candidate has entered his or her name in any of the these races.

Also adding to the fun is the new voter identification law signed on May 25^th (after a 19-5 vote which was shut down before 9 Democratic Senators had even voted) that demands voters present a photo ID in addition to their valid voter registration card. The law will not actually be enforced for the recall elections, but it could be used in certain polling places to intimidate voters if the polls aren’t watched carefully. At the four elections scheduled for this summer, if a person shows up without a valid photo ID, he/she will be given a brochure telling them what they have to do and where they have to go to obtain one before the 2012 elections. Photo ID for purposes of voting is free, but there have been times in the past when flyers were distributed in certain neighborhoods telling people that the election was a different day than it really was, so it is necessary to watch for any kind of notice or advertisement that tells the unsuspecting they need a photo ID and/or that such ID costs money.

Bearing in mind that there are nine lawsuits pending to block the elections, if all goes according to plan, here’s the who, what, when, where and how…….

July 12: the jigged-up Democratic “primaries” in the Repubican districts, the first name is the real Democrat, the second name the phoney Democrat: 2^nd district, Nancy Nusbaum v. Otto Junkerman; 8^th district, Sandy Pasch v. Gladys Huber; 10^th district, Shelly Moore v. Issac Weix; 14^th district, Fred Clark v. Rol Church; 18^th district, Jessica King v. John Buckstaff; and 32^nd district Jennifer Shilling v. James Smith.

July 19: Legitimate Republican primaries to run against Democratic incumbents(pending filing of economic interest statements): 12^th district, Kim Simac v. Robert Lussow and 22^nd district, Fred Ekornaas v. Jonathan Steitz, The 30^th district primary is canceled, so this will be the day Dave Hansen faces David VanderLeest. This could also be the general recall election date for the Democratic incumbents in the 12^th district, Jim Holperin and the 22^nd district, Robert Wirch, if for any reason there is no primary.

August 9: Recall general election for the six Republicans (assuming the real Democrat wins the primaries): 2^nd district, Cowles v. Nusbaum; 8^th district, Darling v. Pasch; 10^th district, Harsdorf v. Moore; 14^th district, Olsen v. Clark; 18^th district, Hopper v. King and 32^nd district Kapanke v. Shilling.

August 16^th: if the primaries go through on July 19^th, Holperin in the 12^th district and Wirch in the 22^nd district will face the primary winner in the recall general election.

At the present time, the Republicans hold a 19 to 14 majority in the Wisconsin State Senate. They had previously been a 15 to 18 minority. The Republican majority, under the direction of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, has steamrollered bills desired by Governor Scott Walker, including rescinding collective bargaining rights for most public sector unions and passing a budget that cut $1 billion from municipal and county budgets while handing out $1 billion in new tax cuts to the rich. The Democrats need to hold on to their three recalled seats and win two additional seats to reclaim control of the Senate. They would not be able to pass any bills, but they would be able to stop whatever comes out of Walker next.

The Assembly has 99 members, 59 Republicans, 1 Independent, 38 Democrats and one vacancy. The Democrats won one vacant seat and lost two in May. Before the 2010 election, the Democrats had the majority at 50 seats to 47 Republicans, 2 Independents and 2 vacancies. Assembly members cannot be recalled until January, 2012, because an elective representative in Wisconsin must be in office for one year from his/her last election to be recalled and all of them are elected to two-year terms every other year. The Senators are elected to four-year terms rotating every two years, so 16 of them were elected in 2008 and could be recalled.

Governor Scott Walker is up for recall in January, 2012.