Now that the GOP’s majority in the Wisconsin state senate has shrunk to 17-16 after the summer recall elections, there’s lots of speculation about how the fall legislation session will proceed.
Governor Scott Walker now talks about bipartisanship. State representative Mark Pocan, for one, isn’t buying it.
Wisconsinites in the Twittersphere have been hoping that GOP state senator Dale Schulz would flip and become an independent, or even
a Democrat.
Schulz is a moderate Republican from Richland Center. He was the only Republican to break ranks and vote against the budget repair bill that gutted collective bargaining rights for public sector workers.
Despite the high hopes, Schulz isn’t going to shed his party affiliation. WORT-FM, Madison’s community radio station, spoke to Schulz right after August 9 recall election.
“When I woke up this morning, I looked at the mirror, and I discovered a funny thing. I’m the same guy who looked in the mirror before he went to bed. I still have a receding hairline. I really need to lose another twenty pounds. And I reminded myself that my wife and daughter think I should confine my singing to the shower. Last night’s election results don’t change anything. I’m still the same guy. I believe the same things as when folks reelected me last fall,” Schulz said.
“I’m an unrepentant Republican. I’ve been a Republican for forty-five years. I don’t see myself becoming an independent or a Democrat,” he added.
Schulz is a moderate Republican, though, and if there’s going to be bipartisanship in the state legislature, it would include moderates like him.
This week, state workers will feel the pinch of Walker’s extreme agenda. For the first time, their August 25 paychecks will contain the big increases in employee contributions for retirement and healthcare benefits due to Walker’s budget.
Frank Emspak, a former union leader and founder of Workers Independent News, says, “People are going to get testy when they get 10 percent hit.”
Plus, more legislation bad for working people may get passed, Emspak notes.
The governor’s poll ratings are already low. Will his popularity decrease along with workers’ paychecks? We’ll know soon enough.
It was a long night at the Sheraton Hotel in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, where Representative Sandy Pasch was holding her election night party. It was meant to be a victory celebration.
It was supposed to be the night Democrats would win three of six seats in a recall election, and thus flip the state senate control away from the GOP. Pasch was trying to unseat Republican Senator Alberta Darling in the Eighth District, a suburban area north of Milwaukee.
Darling, a twenty-year incumbent who had been heavily favored to win in July, started to seem vulnerable in August. But in the end, Darling received 54 percent of the vote. With Darling’s victory—the last declared race of the evening—the GOP retained its majority in the Wisconsin State Senate.
It was a long night after a beautiful summer day.
Sandy Pasch’s campaign office in Glendale sits in a strip mall. When I got there the afternoon of the recall, the place was jammed with supporters and the air inside the office was both stuffy and electric.
State Senator Chris Larson, one of the “Fab 14,” rallied the troops, as did state Representative Mark Pocan.
Then it was Pasch’s turn to speak. “It’s about taking back our state, and about getting our voices heard, “ she said to the capacity crowd, and accused Darling of “rubber-stamping” Walker’s policies.
Outside the office I caught up with Pasch. Why did she think she could unseat Darling? I asked her. In 2008, the district went for Obama with 4,000 votes, she said. In 2010, the district supported Walker. It was those 4000 votes that Pasch was after.
Her Get Out the Vote efforts were “fantastic” she said and talked about the overwhelming number of volunteers. They had knocked on 50,000 doors over the past weekend alone, she said.
There was very high turnout in Glendale, Pasch’s territory. The polling place at Parkway Elementary School reported 1100 voters, which almost matched the 1200 voters in 2008 Presidential election. Donna Strand, the chief inspector at the polling station, said her crew had been busy since 7 a.m. “I’ll be glad when today is over,” she said with a smile. “But it’s been fun.”
I spoke to one of the last voters at that polling place, Barb Piaskoski, who stepped into the school at 7:58 p.m. Piaskoski is a small business owner from Shorewood who was hoping the people could work together again. And she was dismissive of all the third-party ads that aired nightly on television. “They are a waste of money,” she said. She voted for Pasch.
The mood was the effervescent at the Sheraton Hotel, where Pasch held her campaign party. People of all ages had crammed into a small ballroom awaiting the results. They cheered loudly when Shilling won, and later King. The crowd chanted “Recall Walker.”
And then around 11pm, Graeme Zielinski, Communications Director of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, alleged that there was vote tampering in Waukesha, and that there were severe irregularities. He didn’t provide any proof. (The next morning the Democratic Party said the allegations were made in heat of the moment.)
The mood started to get grim at the Sheraton. People were staring at the TV or at their cell phones. Pasch addressed the crowd briefly and thanked people for their hard work and invited people to stay at the party.
But the party was over, even though Pasch did not concede last night.
AP reported shortly around midnight that she had lost by 5000 votes.
Protesters greeted Governor Scott Walker at the opening ceremonies of the Wisconsin State Fair. The crowd booed during Walker’s short speech at the We Energies Energy Park.
Anti-Walker protesters dressed mainly in red Ts (one of the main colors of the protesters throughout 2011) while the governor’s supporters wore green T-shirts that said, “Scott Walker, My Hero” on the front and “He’s got nads!” on the back.
Bill Reik, a steelworker from Milwaukee, attended the event, along with others from United Steelworkers, District 2. The Steelworkers have been a key component of the union efforts organizing against Walker and the WI GOP.
It was a very cold day in March when United Steelworkers International President Leo Gerard gave a rousing speech at the Capitol. Winter’s freezing temps have given way to summer’s blazing heat, and protests at the capital have given way to knocking on doors in recall districts.
Reik has been going door-to-door in District 8, where GOP senator Alberta Darling is facing challenger Sandy Pasch. It’s been a traditionally conservative district, but Reik says these areas are now supporting Pasch. He’s been hitting the areas north of Milwaukee: Fox Point, Bayside, Whitefish Bay. “They’re flipping,” he said.
He’s optimistic about Tuesday’s recall election, predicting the Democrats will win five of six seats.
Vince Schmuki is a property manager from Shorewood, a “bastion of liberalism,” he said. He’s been volunteering for the Darling campaign, going door-to-door, too.
I asked him how the efforts have been going. “Excellent,” he replied. But he told me a story about a woman in pro-Pasch area who was too afraid to put out a Darling sign. “It’s sad that people are afraid to speak their minds . . . for fear of retribution.”
I asked him his take on the Tuesday election. “We will win, if we don’t take it for granted,” he said. “Well, whoever takes it for granted will lose.”
He thought the GOP would still have its grip on all three branches of state government after all the recalls are over. Liberals, Schmuki said, are bullies, and people are sick of bullies.
The booing and “shame” chants upset him, which prevented Walker from being heard. Schmuki said it was a violation of freedom of speech. “This is wrong,” he said. “Today it was fascism at work. They refused to let him get a word in edgewise.”
I asked Schmuki if he thought of the political culture had been transformed. “It’s changed tremendously,” he said. “People rose up and challenged the status quo.” Note he’s not talking about the pro-union spring rallies. He’s talking about Republican voters rising up November 2010.
Sue Adams is a farmer’s daughter who goes to the state fair every year. She lives and works in Madison and has been a state or public employee for thirty-seven years. She was one of those protesters who booed Walker.
“It’s been a tough six months,” she said. “That last week of June, we saw [people with] thirty to forty years of experience walk out the door everyday,” referring to the high number of people retiring from the public sector.
“And there’s a stampede waiting on the other side, including myself,” she added.
Adams is “cautiously optimistic” about the Tuesday election, but she’s concerned about election fraud. “If there’s election fraud, it doesn’t matter how people vote.”
(For what it’s worth, Schmuki was also concerned about fraud, but of the voter ID variety. He’s excited about the new voter ID law, which will not be in effect during the recalls.)
The anti-Walker folks may have outnumbered the pro-Walker crowd in the stands during the opening ceremony, but that’s not the case at the fair overall. Sam Mayfield, independent journalist, conducted interviews with people walking on one of the main streets on the fairgrounds. The majority were Scott Walker supporters (11 of 17). A small sample to be sure, but it’s still worth noting.
There’s nothing quite like the state fair to see how far our political culture has sunk in Wisconsin. People call each other names—puppet or bully or fascist—and talk about the guv having balls.
And at the state fair I saw how far our food culture has sunk. Deep-fried everything: pickles, mac & cheese, Oreos, ’smores, and beer. Yes, fried beer.
Between the cheese curds and the name calling, I left the fair with a bellyache.
At the summer meeting of the National Governors Association, Scott Walker says he miscalculated earlier this year—but he’s not admitting he was wrong to go after collective bargaining.
“We didn’t do enough of a job making the case for what we were doing and why it was needed,” Walker told The Washington Post on July 16.
No, he didn’t. Walker did not talk about stripping collective bargaining rights during his campaign for governor. Instead, he talked about balancing the budget. But he and his GOP cronies had planned to undermine labor law, even if no one said anything before the November 2010 election.
Walker knew it wouldn’t be easy, he told the Post, but he didn’t anticipate how long—or big—of a battle it would be. “Where I was really shocked [was] not so much the public’s reaction [in Wisconsin] as much as it was the national reaction,” he says.
But a national reaction was exactly what Walker wanted. Remember that chat he had over the phone with “David Koch,” aka Ian Murphy? In that conversation, Walker said, “I’ve gotta tell you the response from around the country has been phenomenal.” He then went on to talk about the support he received from fellow Republicans.
Walker has delusions of grandeur, and, like so many other Wisconsin pols (see Tommy Thompson), he thinks he can catapult himself to the national stage—and perhaps a national position—through his provocative work in Wisconsin. After all, this is a man who essentially compared himself to Ronald Reagan going after the air-traffic controllers in 1981.
Reagan, however, never faced a recall election and that’s a likely possibility for Walker himself later this year. Right now, Wisconsin is embroiled in a recall election that could tip the state senate, controlled by the Republicans, to the Dems.
The races are so close that it’s going to be a toss-up. Outside groups supporting both sides are spending millions this summer.
“It’s tough,” Walker says about the GOP’s prospects for keeping control of the state senate. “If the election were January 9th rather than August 9th, I’d feel a lot better.”
Wisconsin State Senator Luther Olsen is one of the six Republicans facing a recall election this summer. After Tuesday’s Democratic primary, he will now face Representative Fred Clark in the August 9 general election.
Republicans ran “protest” candidates in the primaries in order to drag out the electoral process. All six “fake Democrats” lost.
Delaying the general election allowed the incumbents more time to campaign—and to get more campaign contributions. Millions of dollars are pouring into Wisconsin, some coming from groups outside the state.
Olsen told the Baraboo News Republic that he’s concerned about the impact. “There’s going to be a lot of money in it, third party money, that will dwarf anything I can spend,” Olsen said. “Unfortunately, outside money will have a big influence on this election. Is the goal to buy this election?”
Did Olsen voice this same concern in 2010, when outside spending played a key role in the GOP takeover of the legislature? After all, the special interest group from outside the state that spent the most money was the Republican State Leadership Committee.
The Republican State Leadership Committee is a 527 group based in Virginia, heavily backed by big business. In 2010 legislative races in Wisconsin, this group spent nearly $1 million, including almost $500,000 to target Majority leader Russ Decker, who lost his seat. It was the first time the Republican State Leadership Committee spent money in Wisconsin.
So has Olsen received any out of state funding? According to hiscampaign filings, he did indeed.
Olsen, the Senate Education Committee Chair, received out of state money from Richard Sharp of Richmond, Virginia. According to campaignmoney.com, Sharp has given more than $100,000 to rightwing candidates across the country in 2010 alone.
Sharp’s focus is on dismantling education. He’s the chairman of Children First America, one of those anti-public school groups with a nice sounding name.
A look at Olsen’s campaign contributions reveals donations from Altria, Eli Lilly PAC, and KochPAC, to name a few.
Olsen is correct—outside groups are having a big influence on this election. We’ll have to wait until August to see who wins, but we can already see which pols are bought and paid for.
Last week I wrote about the GOP plans to redistrict the state. Typically this happens in the fall, but this is no typical year in Wisconsin.
Mike McCabe from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign told me that the Republicans could very well unveil the secret plans this week and try to ram it down the state’s throat while they still have a majority. (The recalls could change that.)
Well, lo and behold, that’s exactly what the Republicans are doing. In classic drop bad news on a Friday fashion, the GOP unveiled the maps last Friday. And it’s not pretty.
Jeff Fitzgerald, Assembly leader, said last month the Dems might sue. It’s easy to understand why.
In fact, the proposal would knock several candidates out of the districts they are running in right now in the recall elections.
State representative Fred Clark, Democrat of Baraboo, would no longer be in Senate District 14, where he is campaigning to replace senator Luther Olsen, who is a vulnerable candidate. Nancy Nussbaum, who is running against senator Rob Cowles, would no longer live in District 2.
And senator Bob Wirch would no longer be living in his current district, and instead be in a more conservative District 21.
These changes would not be in effect for the recalls, but by 2012. If the GOP loses any seats this summer, the new redistricting could help it retake seats in 2012.
Perhaps we should no longer be shocked by the Wisconsin Republican tactics. As Rep. Kelda Helen Roys told the Wisconsin State Journal, “I never expected the Republicans would act fairly, but I am appalled.”
Ultimately, this will cost the state a lot of money in lawsuits. And aren’t we having a budget crisis? No matter. The GOP has been going non-stop to press its agenda, and is very worried about losing control of the senate due to the recalls.
Normally, the redistricting process starts at the local level and then the state steps in. But the Fitzgerald brothers are running things differently. In FitzWalkerstan, up is down, the map is fair, and rules don’t really matter.
So this week we will see another “extraordinary session,” similar to what happened in March. Will we see protests too?
As the first primary date nears, let’s look at the enormous amounts of money being spent in these recall races. State law allows lawmakers targeted for recalls to exceed normal limits. So Republicans have raised more money, but that’s because they’ve been able to fundraise for a longer period of time.
Here’s a Q&A with Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is a nonpartisan watchdog group working for clean, open, and honest government. It was founded in 1995 as a response to the growing dominance of special interest money in the campaigns of state lawmakers. With the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. the FEC, special interest money has gone through the roof, especially here in Wisconsin.
Click here to go to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign’s report on candidate finance activity.
I did an interview with Mike McCabe on WORT-FM on July 6. Here’s an edited transcript.
Q: Who has raised the most money?
McCabe: Republican are raising more than Democrats. But it should be noted that the Republicans targeted for recall have been able to raise money, and in unlimited amounts from the point when the petition drive started to when the elections were actually authorized. All limits on campaign donations were lifted. They were taking $20,000 and $25,000 checks. The normal limit for a state senate candidate is $1000. They’ve been able to raise money all along.
The challengers have only been raising money since they started their challenges in May. So it’s not surprising the Republicans have raised more money now. They got a big jumpstart. And they’ve had the advantage of being able to raise money in unlimited sums. Still, we’re talking boatloads of money, ungodly sums that are flowing into these recall elections.
Q: Is there a relationship between how much money raised and vulnerability? The more money you have, the more vulnerable you are?
McCabe: You can’t effectively do polling in elections like this, because it’s so hard to predict what the electorate will actually be, who will turn out to vote. But on a gut level, the Republicans who are probably most vulnerable are Dan Kapanke in La Crosse area, Randy Hopper in Fond Du Lac area, and probably Alberta Darling is right in that mix. So the Republicans are clearly directing funds to those they feel really need the protection, and who are the most vulnerable.
Beyond that, there’s a second tier of vulnerability: probably Sheila Harsdorf, Luther Olsen, Rob Cowles. Money is flowing into where the circumstances seem most dire for the Republicans.
Q: This doesn’t even include the special interest money flowing in this summer
McCabe: Which will be millions
Q: Talk about that.
McCabe: We know that the Club for Growth already has done some ads buys, pretty substantial, in at least three markets: La Crosse, up in the Eau Claire area, the Harsdorf race, and also in Milwaukee for Senator Darling. Those ads buys have been
high five figures, low six figures, $60,000 to $70,000 at least, could well be in the six figures in each of those races. They are preparing to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, into these recall elections when all is said and done.
We Are Wisconsin, the labor coalition supporting the Democrats, has said publicly that they have already raised $4 million to support the Democrats. I don’t think there’s any question on that the Republican side that they will spend at least that much or more.
So you will see outside interest groups spending in the several million dollar range overall.
And it looks, just from the candidate fundraising and spending, several of these races are going to hit seven figures. They are going to pass the million-dollar mark just in candidate spending alone. When you think about when these elections were actually called, it’s been a short time frame. We are talking weeks to pull of an election. The sums of money that are flowing in so quickly are really astonishing.
Q: It seems that the enormous sums money is just distorting everything in what used to be a pretty decent political culture here.
McCabe: There’s no question there. As was the case a little over a century ago, it’s the defining question of our time: Which shall rule wealth or people? Right now, wealth is ruling.
Wisconsin Republicans are making plans to redistrict the state. This happens every ten years, in order to accommodate population changes. But this year’s redistricting is taking on a new twist here in FitzWalkerstan, and the public is being shut out of the process so far. The maps were created in secret by lawyers hired early this year by Republican legislative leaders at a cost to taxpayers of $50,000 a month, or $300,000 and counting, according to media reports.
Republican Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said in a statement in late June that lawmakers are now being shown the maps.
Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign filed a public records request about possible plans to change the state’s electoral map.
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is a nonpartisan watchdog group working for clean, open, and honest government. It was founded in 1995 as a response to the growing dominance of special interest money in the campaigns of state lawmakers.
With the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. the FEC, special interest money has gone through the roof, especially here in Wisconsin.
I did an interview with Mike McCabe on WORT-FM on July 6. Here’s an edited transcript.
Q: You filed open records requests June 28 asking Republican Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald and Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald to make public redistricting maps and information pertaining to the process of redrawing legislative districts in Wisconsin to accommodate population changes shown in the 2010 U.S. Census. Can you talk about that?
Mike McCabe: We are hearing a lot of talk that Republicans who control the legislature will act on redistricting this month, which would be unprecedented. Normally, the way redistricting works, every ten years, it starts with the redrawing of municipal boundaries around the state. So local officials start the redistricting process. Once those municipal boundaries are established, that then triggers the state redistricting process. Municipal boundaries are usually done by the end of August or so; redistricting usually happens on the state level in the fall.
The only reason they would want to jump the gun, and draw state lines before municipal boundaries are done, would be to get redistricting accomplished before the recall elections this summer, which could flip control of the state senate to the Democrats. So it’s a very brazenly and blatantly partisan motivation.
They’ve said they are circulating maps among key members of the legislature. But they won’t give the public a look. That’s why we filed an open records request.
Q: So you haven’t seen the map?
McCabe: They have yet to reply to our open record request.
Q: Do you think it’s possible we could have a new electoral map by the end of the month?
McCabe: Absolutely. Rumors are rampant in the capitol that it could even be unveiled as early as this week. The legislature would act quickly and both houses having it finished by the end of July.
The public needs the opportunity to see these maps, to review them, understand them, and to respond and offer critiques and alternatives. It doesn’t look like the people who control the legislature right now want any of that to happen. They would like to unveil it on a moment’s notice, and ram it down the state’s throat.
This week, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign filed open records requests asking the Fitzgerald brothers to make public redistricting maps and information pertaining to the process of redrawing legislative districts in Wisconsin.
I’m wondering if they, or any other Republicans, have had much contact with the Republican State Leadership Committee.
The Fitzgeralds would not have their majority positions if it weren’t for this outside group that spent nearly $1 million in the 2010 legislative election.
Who is the Republican State Leadership Committee? And why do they matter?
The Republican State Leadership Committee is a 527 group based in Virginia, heavily backed by big business. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has donated about $7.2 million over six years, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Top contributors to RSLC for its 2012 election cycle include WellPoint Foundation, Devon Energy, Pharma, Citigroup, GlaxoSmithKline, and AT&T.
According to the Center for Public Integrity, financial restrictions on 527s are very few: There are no upper limits on contributions to these committees, and no spending limits, either. Any type of donor may contribute, from individuals to unions to corporations, even other non-profits. There is no specific prohibition on foreign contributions.
In 2010 legislative races in Wisconsin, the RSLC bet big time—and won, even though it was the first time it spent money in Wisconsin. The RSLC spent nearly $1 million in five races, and won four of the seats. It spent almost $500,000 to target Majority leader Russ Decker, who lost his seat.
Across the country, the RSLC spent $20 million on state legislative races, capturing twenty legislative chambers from Democrats.
The group is now taking on an increased role as advisory arm for GOP state legislators who are drawing the new congressional lines in strategic states. The Washington Post says the RSLC will take on much of the redistricting role traditionally filled by the Republican National Committee. As 527 group, it doesn’t face tough federal campaign finance rules, so it is “the more ideal clearinghouse for redistricting assistance than the RNC or the party’s House campaign committee,” reports the Post. The group contracts with the same redistricting experts as the RNC.
The RSLC says its help is available to all, but it will focus on the eighteen states that will gain or lose a seat.
GAINS: Arizona (+1) Florida (+2) Georgia (+1) Nevada (+1) South Carolina (+1) Texas (+4) Utah (+1) Washington (+1)
LOSSES: Illinois (-1) Iowa (-1) Louisiana (-1) Massachusetts (-1) Michigan (-1) Missouri (-1) New Jersey (-1) New York (-2) Ohio (-2) Pennsylvania (-1)
Of the eighteen states listed above, the RSLC invested heavily in New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Texas during the 2010 election.
Even though Wisconsin is not losing or gaining a seat, it’s imaginable that the RSLC will still focus efforts here—perhaps even in the upcoming recall elections. (The RSLC did not return email and phone messages.)
Wisconsin is set to be a battleground state in the 2012 election, and it seems unlikely that the Republican State Leadership Committee won’t try to strike gold twice.
Samantha Masterton, 52, lives in Antigo, Wisconsin, but works in Wausau. She works at the First Universalist Unitarian church.
She came to Madison today because she feels “so passionately about changes happening in the state,” she says inside the Capitol Rotunda. “What’s happening is flat out wrong. I react viscerally to the point that I’m sick.”
What makes her feel better is coming to the Solidarity Sing Along, which happens everyday at noon in the rotunda.
The noontime Solidarity Sing Along had just broken up. I wasn’t inside for it, but reports say it was huge and wonderful.
“If I can’t sing, I don’t want to come,” she says. She’s been to Wisconsin’s capitol quite a few times this year, including the huge March 12 protest.
“If I can’t sing, there’s a slight disappointment,” she adds. “It’s very empowering. I look in people’s eyes and see that I am not alone in my passion.”
Masterton is not alone in her passion. On Day 120 of the Wisconsin Uprising, the protests continue. Today is no different, but there is an added urgency as the WI GOP are getting ready to take another stab at collective bargaining.
There will be a larger demo at 5:30. It’s unclear what will happen but many people are noting on Twitter and Facebook that it’s going to be a long night.