FollowUp 8: Wisconsin Republican Dirty Tricks

The signature gathering for petitions to recall Governor Scott Walker and other Republicans is over.  The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) will now begin to determine if there are sufficient valid signatures to proceed with a recall election for each.  What is amazing is just how many signatures were acquired, from the GAB:

Current Recall Committees

For more information about each recall committee, including copies of registration, petitions and challenges as they are filed, please click on its name.

Officeholder	Committee Name	GAB-1 Filing Date	Signatures Required	Date Petitions Filed	Estimated Number of Signatures
Scott Walker	Committee to Recall Walker	November 15, 2011	540,208	January 17, 2012	1,000,000
Rebecca Kleefisch	Committee to Recall Kleefisch	November 15, 2011	540,208	January 17, 2012	845,000
Scott Fitzgerald	Committee to Recall Scott Fitzgerald	November 15, 2011	16,742	January 17, 2012	20,600
Van Wanggaard	Committee to Recall Wanggaard	November 15, 2011	15,353	January 17, 2012	24,000
Terry Moulton	Committee to Recall Moulton	November 15, 2011	14,958	January 17, 2012	21,000
Pam Galloway	Recall Senator Pam Galloway	November 15, 2011	15,647	January 17, 2012	21,000

Scott Walker is the Governor of Wisconsin.  Rebecca Kleefisch is the Lt. Governor of Wisconsin.  Scott Fitzgerald is a state senator from the 13th district (Central Wisconsin including Juneau) and serves as Republican Majority Leader.  Van Wanggaard is a state senator from the 21st district (SouthEast Wisconsin including Racine).  Terry Moulton is a state senator from the 23rd district (NorthWest Wisconsin including Chippewa Falls).  Pam Galloway is a state senator from the 29th district (Northern Wisconsin including Wausau).  All are Republicans and Wisconsin is clearly upset with them.

It was originally considered a long shot that enough signatures could be collected to subject the Governor to a recall election.  Channel 3000 has more.

Recall circulators lined up around a U-Haul truck Tuesday filled with boxes of signatures Tuesday afternoon. They later brought them into the office of the state elections board -- the Government Accountability Board -- located near the state Capitol. Volunteers formed a line leading to the office as others marched inside with the boxes covered in blue tape.

Additional petition signatures were also filed to force recall elections for Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and four Republican senators.

Organizers needed more 540,000 signatures for each to force the recall election. Besides Walker, they said they turned in about 305,000 more signatures than needed to force a recall election of Kleefisch. They said that they brought more than 3,000 pounds of papers to turn in.

More than a ton and a half of petitions!  Incredible.  While the GAB has one month to process the petitions, it will probably take longer.  There has never been anything close to this before.  This is more than ten times the volume of paperwork that was turned in for the recall endeavors last Summer.  Wisconsinites are clearly upset.

The Governor said that voters will stand by him.

Gov. Scott Walker said that he expects voters to stand by him in any recall election and will campaign on his record, according to a statement released by his campaign Tuesday.

"I look forward to talking to the people of Wisconsin about my continued promises to control government spending, balance the budget, and hold the line on taxes," Walker was quoted as saying.

The statement was released without Mr. Walker who was off in New York doing some fundraising.  He is going through money advertising what a great job he is doing.  Mr. Walker is expected to spend more than five million dollars defending his seat.  The Republican Party also chimed in.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin on Tuesday echoed the governor's comments. GOP leaders said they believe the recall process has been filled with fraud, and their teams will be examining every signature that's turned in.

"Well, of course they got a million signatures, when they're allowing people to sign 80 times; they're allowing them to include Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny. There was never any doubt in our mind that the Democrats would be able to rally their liberal base of supporters around this baseless and expensive recall effort," said Ben Sparks, Republican Party of Wisconsin communications director.

Aside from GOP allegations, I know of no evidence that anyone in Wisconsin signed a petition eighty times, not even ten times or deliberately twice.  Mr. Sparks can allege whatever he wants, but it just isn't true.

16 November 2011, Original Pedantic Political Ponderings post.
30 November 2011, FollowUp 1.
4 December 2011, FollowUp 2.
11 December 2011, FollowUp 3.
14 December 2011, FollowUp 4.
15 December 2011, FollowUp 5.
30 December 2011, FollowUp 6.
13 January 2012, FollowUp 7.

25 January 2012, FollowUp 9.
2 February 2012, FollowUp 10.
9 February 2012, FollowUp 11.
12 February 2012, FollowUp 12.
18 February 2012, FollowUp 13.
22 February 2012, FollowUp 14.
6 March 2012, FollowUp 15.
12 March 2012, FollowUp 16.
16 March 2012, FollowUp 17.
30 March 2012, FollowUp 18.
31 March 2012, FollowUp 19.
3 April 2012, FollowUp 20.
4 April 2012, FollowUp 21.
11 April 2012, FollowUp 22.
14 April 2012, FollowUp 23.
17 April 2012, FollowUp 24.
21 April 2012, FollowUp 25.
29 April 2012, FollowUp 26.
2 May 2012, FollowUp 27.
6 May 2012, FollowUp 28.
10 May 2012, FollowUp 29.
13 May 2012, FollowUp 30.
23 May 2012, FollowUp 31.
24 May 2012, FollowUp 32.
30 May 2012, FollowUp 33.
2 June 2012, FollowUp 34.
4 June 2012, FollowUp 35.
5 June 2012, FollowUp 36.