Recall Scott Walker

[TheGlyphstone]

You know.. they out to create an app that causes his phone beep every time a signature is registered.

Wouldn't that just be the same as an app that plays a nonstop beeping noise?

[Valerian]

Well, as of Thursday, that would have been 507,533 beeps.    The required number is 540,208; organizers hope to collect 720,277 if possible, to allow for the fact that some signatures will be thrown out on challenges for various reasons.

Recalls of the four Republican senators now eligible for recall are also "on pace," according to this report.  Each reports having about 10,000 currently, with the needed numbers ranging from 14,958 to 16,742.  All the recall efforts still have just under a month left to collect signatures.

The best Walker could come up with to counter the news of the signatures breaking the half-million mark was to announce, proudly, that he'd raised 5.1 million dollars for his recall election, since in his world, dollars from billionaires trump the wishes of his own constituents.  Since this is a recall election, individuals are able to donate amounts beyond the usual $10,000 limit, provided all the funds are spent on recall related activities.  The Democratic Party has raised about 1.2 million in the same time period.

Almost half (45%) of Walker's donations came from single donations of $1,000 or more.  Donations to the Democratic Party for the recall effort average out to about $26.00 per person, according to the latest overall numbers here.

Walker has now broken the state campaign finance laws a whopping 1,115 times since 2009, according to this complaint.

"Scott Walker has improperly reported well over $500,000 in contributions from inside and outside of Wisconsin," said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. "Scott Walker has absolutely no interest in following the campaign finance rules of the state of Wisconsin and we again call for state regulators to address his serial violation of our laws."

According to the statutes, each violation of the reporting laws can result in a fine of up to $500, which in Walker's case could top nearly $557,500.

And a Milwaukee man has been arrested for refusing to cooperate with the ongoing John Doe investigation looking into Walker's campaign contributions.  So I guess we're getting somewhere...?

[MasterMischief]

Wonders if he could recall Perry.

Blasted red state.

[Callie Del Noire]

Wonders if he could recall Perry.

Blasted red state.

Don't worry..he's so busy failing at running for president I'm sure someone will oust him.. of course I'm wondering right now why Texas is soooo damn cold! (Visiting family in Tx)

[Serephino]

My question is why hasn't the asshole been arrested already?  From following this thread and the news, he's ignored State Supreme Court orders several times.  There's evidence the election might have been fixed.  Now the finance violations....

Why is this idiot so special?  Why can elected officials blatantly break the law, and only have to worry about getting recalled?

[Tamhansen]

My question is why hasn't the asshole been arrested already?  From following this thread and the news, he's ignored State Supreme Court orders several times.  There's evidence the election might have been fixed.  Now the finance violations....

Why is this idiot so special?  Why can elected officials blatantly break the law, and only have to worry about getting recalled?

It's called Nepotism. If politicians didn't protect their peers who did illegal things, than who would protect them if their illegal business ever got found out? This has been the way of democracy ever since it was invented in Athens a few thousand years ago.

[Valerian]

The John Doe investigation about Walker's campaign finance habits is still ongoing, and as such there's not yet a lot of information out there about it, unfortunately.  The FBI won't let much slip until they're ready to make arrests, most likely.  I check on that a lot, believe me. 

Lately Walker's been making a big deal about how he "refused to cut spending" for groups that help fight child pornography and also groups that help victims deal with sexual assault.  Shockingly, this isn't quite true.  He initially ordered the cuts as part of a statewide slash-and-burn program to balance the budget that he helped mess up.  When the aforementioned groups and other victims' advocates started complaining, that's when he backed off and said that the cuts could come from other departments instead.

Walker wants to cut $123 million from the budget.  Because of that, the University of Wisconsin (my alma mater) is facing the need to cut $46.1 million out of their budget, on top of a previously approved $250 million reduction over two years.  They've also been ordered to make all these cuts without layoffs if at all possible... because face it, Scotty's just not on track for creating that quarter of a million jobs he promised, so he can't afford to lose many more.

He's also developing a habit of hiding.  We usually find out where our governor is when somebody blogs or tweets about it, because he sure isn't telling anybody when he goes out-of-state to raise campaign funds.

At least now he's started to regret what he's done... now that he's been caught out, at least.

Asked about the now-infamous Feb. 22 call with a prankster pretending to be billionaire David Koch, Walker was also uncharacteristically remorseful, agreeing with a friend who has said that Walker “felt badly that he did something so stupid.”

“Accurate summary,” Walker said. “It was stupid.”

The governor called the experience “a pretty good reality check for me.” Beyond the obvious lessons about screening phone calls, it re-enforced for him the importance of keeping the focus on his agenda and “not about what people think about me personally.”

First, he still thinks that the only thing he actually did that was wrong was not to explain was he was doing more clearly, so I'm not sure that was quite enough of a reality check, unfortunately.  On the other hand, it's a very good thing that he's learned not to care about people's opinions. 

[Callie Del Noire]

A day without rights in the Wisconsin State Assembly (Part 1 of 3)

I got this from a friend. It's intersting how much flack about a simple 'no signs' rule in the assembly is getting.

I found it ironic.. 'We are your elected representives and We represent you."

[Serephino]

Nope... they represent their own interests.

[Valerian]

You'll notice that it's only state troopers making arrests in that video.  That's because the Madison police, the county sheriff, and (if I remember correctly) even the capitol police, the groups who would normally handle security issues in and around the state government buildings, all refused to make such arrests.

I think I mentioned it in the other Scott Walker thread a while back, when the protests were new -- the county sheriff was ordered to post deputies to keep people out of the capitol building, but flatly refused because neither he nor any of his officers were required to act as Walker's "palace guards".

Wisconsin has always had one of the most open policies of any state in the union about access to state government buildings, which is the main reason why all these restrictions have been such a shock.  Walker's draconian policies there have probably been a big help to his opponents in keeping the protests alive. 

[itsbeenfun2000]

Walker recently tried to look like a good guy by reinstating family care in Wisconsin. It is a program designed to allow handicapped adults to live in group homes instead of institutions or nursing homes which saves the tax payers money. Turns out the federal government ordered him to reinstate the program.

[Valerian]

Some interesting news:

Early on, Walker's union-busting bill (which also allows him to sell Wisconsin utilities to private corporations without oversight, something that is generally conveniently overlooked) was challenged on legal grounds because the state senate violated the state's open meetings law.  The Dane county judge ruled it void on that basis; the state supreme court overturned that ruling 4-3, that coincidentally being the current conservative-liberal split there.  Now Wisconsin DA Ismael Ozanne has revived a challenge to that ruling, saying that one of the judges should have recused himself on the grounds of having received free legal services from one of the attorneys on the GOP's side.

And now the eastern district federal court has smacked the Republicans hard for their attempt to push through redistricting plans that would make it much more difficult for the Democrats to win in the upcoming senate recall elections.

But since Republican lawmakers hired outside representation, the three-judge panel in Milwaukee made it clear that the hired guns, rather than Wisconsin residents, should foot the bill for "the sort of disinformation, foot-dragging, and obfuscation now engaged in by Wisconsin's elected officials and/or their attorneys."
...
"Cooperate immediately," [U.S. District Judge J.P] Stadtmueller wrote. "Neither this Court, the parties in this case, nor Wisconsin's citizens have the interest or time to endure the litigation tactics being used by public officials or their private counsel in what has quickly become a poorly disguised attempt to cover up a process that should have been public from the outset, despite the Legislature's concerted efforts to mask the process behind the closed doors of a private law firm."

The italics are in the original, which is apparently an odd thing for such rulings, as is the fact that attorneys as well as their clients are mentioned.

So, yeah, lots of unusual things happening, but at least they're not all one-sided for a change.

[Callie Del Noire]

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/01/11246/close-1-million-petition-recall-wisconsin-governor-scott-walker

I guess that he didn't have the people's support after all. I think a million signatures show that the Wisconsin voter isn't happy. Maybe he should call the Koch Brother's and ask for more cash to keep his supporters in the state house bought.

[Avis habilis]

I think a million signatures show that the Wisconsin voter isn't happy.

According to him, that means the other 4 million people in the state are perfectly happy with him.

[Callie Del Noire]

According to him, that means the other 4 million people in the state are perfectly happy with him.

It's nearly twice what they needed to match the percentage of the voters who ACTUALLY voted him in. A goodly portion of them.

[Valerian]

The article Callie linked to mentions getting 6,000 signatures from the traditionally conservative town of Burlington -- which is a town of not quite 11,000 people.  So, yeah.

Walker got in with only about 1.1 million votes.  I don't understand how he can keep right on saying, with apparently a total lack of concern, that he'll get voted right back in again.  There will be a higher turnout than usual, I'm sure, but Wisconsin only has about 4 million eligible voters.  Of course money will buy him some votes, since he'll be outspending the Democrats at least two to one, but his confidence really just makes me wonder what color the sky is in his little world.

He was in New York when the petitions were delivered, at a $2,500 per person fundraiser.  Recall organizers threw a party at Monona Terrace in Madison, the site of Walker's inaugural party.  :)

[Callie Del Noire]

I think when you can apparently get away with voter fraud, selling your citizen's livelihood away, hijack due process as good as he has, that you get a sense of invulnerbilty. Besides he can always pull off what NCs last governor did if charges come down the pipe. Plead out to the first minor charge you can get to stop the investigation before something really heavy hits.

[Valerian]

And I guess people throwing pricey dinners to help fill up your coffers doesn't hurt.  *sigh*

I suppose some of it might also be that his advisers are carefully coaching him on being confident.  Image, etc.

If only Russ Feingold would run against him.  The lack of a solid opponent is my biggest concern right now, and Feingold has huge support around here.  Get him on the ballot and Walker would have to start packing for sure.

[Callie Del Noire]

I hope you guys find someone solid.. the thing that got me is how he seems set to sell off the governement to private interests. I doubt that his plan to sell off your electrical utilities will make the state a big profit.

[Valerian]

Unfortunately, that's one area where his team seems to have truly mastered the art of spin.  They've gotten all the focus on the union-busting portion of the legislation and turned it into an "evil big unions versus the common good!" sort of thing.  Even people that are paying attention don't always know about the clause regarding selling public utilities.  That's my go-to fact when I hear people saying that it's only the unions who are upset and want this recall.  Me, I'm worried about my electric bill.

One of the Republican senators up for recall has been using the terms "public employee" and "recall supporter" interchangeably, in fact.  I'm not sure how he explains one million signatures when Wisconsin only has about 283,000 public workers.  Large families and many friends, maybe?  Or possibly just that they're threatening people into signing? 

[Callie Del Noire]

I am surprised that the sell off has gone on so far under the radar.. I was in California when the deregulation move that got Brown recalled and Arnie put in. Turning over public utilities to a private owner NEVER results in lower rates. You folks are going to get boned really bad by whoever buys the utility companies.

Which looks to be the Koch brothers from what I can see so far.

[Valerian]

Yes, I'm sure that was part of the deal.  A ticket to the governor's mansion in exchange for a fistful of public utilities, cheap.    There's a boycott going against them, but they're so large and diversified it isn't really going to be effective.

I've just noticed that Kathleen Falk, former Dane County executive, has officially announced her intention to run against Walker for the recall, though her big drawback is that she's not well-known outside the Madison area.  There's a state senator, Tim Cullen, who's also been talking about running, though he hasn't made any formal announcement yet.

Oh, and I was amused to see one item: the Government Accountability Board, which has been ordered by the courts to spend extra effort above and beyond the legal requirements hunting for duplicate and otherwise unusable signatures (part of the GOP delaying tactics, which seems to be how they intend to fight most of the battle) is looking for 50 volunteers to train up to help with that project.  They've only found 30 so far, though, despite much effort, because they can't use anyone who's signed a petition, which eliminates a good percentage of the people in the Madison area, where the board meets.  Heh.

[itsbeenfun2000]

He and his supporters are doing the "its the unions who are running the recall". Last time I checked we don't have 1 million union workers in Wisconsin. If only 11 to 15 percent of the workers are unionized amongst eligible voters that's around 400 thousand.

[Revolverman]

He and his supporters are doing the "its the unions who are running the recall". Last time I checked we don't have 1 million union workers in Wisconsin. If only 11 to 15 percent of the workers are unionized amongst eligible voters that's around 400 thousand.

Even if it was true, so what? The group you are screwing with an oil bit is fighting back? How utterly unfair for you!

[TheGlyphstone]

Even if it was true, so what? The group you are screwing with an oil bit is fighting back? How utterly unfair for you!

Because they're UNIONS! Don't you realize that is basically the same thing as COMMIES? [/derpderp]