WI fake democrats cost taxpayers $400K

Wisconsin GOP senators are going to cost taxpayers at least $400,000 when they run fake Democratic candidates to buy time on their recall elections. These are the same senators who claimed ending collective bargaining rights for government workers was about the budget (which it was not) and claimed to be concerned about spending. They are clearly not concerned about spending to save their political careers. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Election clerks estimate the cost of a Democratic primary in the districts of the recalled GOP lawmakers as follows: Sen. Rob Cowles of Allouez, $86,000; Sen. Alberta Darling of River Hills, $69,700; Sen. Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls, $27,000; Sen. Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac, $84,200; Sen. Dan Kapanke of LaCrosse, $101,000; and Sen. Luther Olsen of Ripon, $60,200.

Those are only partial figures. Two counties in Harsdorf's district, two counties in Olsen's district and one county in Kapanke's district did not provide estimates. The figures also do not include the costs for some of the municipalities within those counties.

Six GOP recall elections were scheduled for July 12, but could be postponed to August 9 if fake Democrats run, making the July 12 date the primary.

There are only 202 days left to recall Koch whore Gov. Scott Walker!

Spoiler Alert: WI GOP recall candidates seek fake Democrats

If you can't win fair and square, then just cheat.

That seems to  be the MO of Wisconsin Republicans, who are seeking fake Democratic candidates to run as spoilers in their recall elections. Six Republican senators are up for recall, with each facing one Democrat. Additional Democratic challengers would force a Democratic primary that would delay the general recall elections scheduled for July 12.

The word that the Republican senators were seeking spoilers started coming out last week, when reports emerged of an audio recording of a county GOP chairman in the district of Sen. Dan Hanky-Kapanke discussing the idea of recruiting fake candidates. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is now reporting Republican officials in Sens. randy Randy Hopper and Lex Luther Olsen's districts are also interested in spoilers: 

Local Republican Party officials are encouraging their GOP colleagues to collect enough signatures to get a fake Democratic candidate on the ballot in each of two upcoming recall elections.

The spoiler Democrats, who are identified by name in the letters, would run in the Democratic primaries for the seats now held by Republican Sens. Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac and Luther Olsen of Ripon.

Both of the fake Democrats have a history of giving almost exclusively to major Republicans.

"We need to make sure Democrat challengers face primaries to allow our Republicans time to mount a campaign," Dan Feyen, chairman of the 6th Congressional District Republican Party, wrote in the letter to "fellow conservatives" on Friday.

As a kicker, here is a sentence from the letter in Olsen's race, written by Sauk County Republican Party Chairman Tim McCumber and Waupaca County Republican Party Chairman Fred Zaug, promoting the fake campaign of "Democrat" Rol Church: "We can't stress enough how important it is to have Rol on the ballot to combat the shady maneuvers of Madison liberals and their out-of-state allies."

Charming.

Woo-hoo! WI orders recall elections for GOP senators

It's official. The Wisconsin board that oversees elections cleared the way today for a July 12 recall election for Sens. Dan Hanky-Kapanke, randy Randy Hopper and Lex Luther Olsen. The three are among the eight Republican senators who voted in favor of the bill to end collective bargaining rights for government workers in Wisconsin.

The Government Accountability Board (GAB) today rejected most challenges to the recall petitions. About 15,000 signatures were needed to trigger recall elections for each senator and in each case there were roughly 21,000 signatures gathered.

The board will evaluate challenges to the remaining recall petitions at its May 31st meeting. There are a total of six Republicans and three Democrats facing recall.

Sen. Dave Hansen, a 20-year Teamster, is facing recall for leaving the state to stave off a vote on this anti-worker bill. Earlier this month a pro-CEO assemblyman who supported Koch whore. Gov. Scott Walker's anti-worker agenda announced he would challenge Hansen. Check out this great video that highlights Hansen's efforts to protect Wisconsin's working families.

There are only 223 days left to recall Scott Walker. Keep up with the countdown on our Stop the War on Workers website.

Widespread fraud in WI GOP recall signatures?

That's what the Wisconsin Democrats are claiming.

You'll recall there are six Republican state senators facing recall because they voted to strip government workers of their collective bargaining rights.

There are three Democratic state senators facing recall (including our Teamster brother Dave Hansen from Green Bay) because they left the state to prevent a vote to strip government workers of their collective bargaining rights.

There was a difference, though, in the way the Democrats and Republicans collected signatures on the recall petitions. The Democrats used volunteers and say they were above board. The Republicans paid an out-of-state firm called Kennedy Enterprises $100,000 to circulate the petitions, and the Democrats said they lied and cheated.

Democrats have asked the Government Accountability Board to disqualify thousands of signatures that were fraudulently collected. They've also asked the GAB to reject recall elections because "widespread and systemic election fraud has tainted the entire GOP operation."

Democratic state Sen. Mark Miller, who escaped recall, said,

Thousands of Wisconsin citizens fell victim to lies and misinformation spread by the circulators, and the papers submitted by this operation contain a river of omissions and wrong information.

David Dayen at firedoglake reports:

...between 6.6% and 9.2% of the signers were “misled into signing the petition or asserted they had never signed.” And there are more charges:

Affidavit of a World War II veteran from Green Bay who was misled into signing a recall petition. Upon learning he had been duped, veteran called the sheriff to get his name removed. When confronted, the circulator claims he will remove the name, but a later review of the petitions reveals the veteran’s name was never crossed off.

Many affidavits attesting that Circulator Sherri Ferrell – who gathered nearly 3,000 signatures in two districts — gathered signatures on Indian reservations claiming petitions were to support “schools,” “Democrats,” and “tribal rights.”
The signature gatherers repeatedly lied about the petition, saying it was for work on a local park, or to recall a Republican Senator instead of a Democrat, or even to recall Governor Scott Walker. There are forged signatures of dead people in the petitions, names with fake addresses, and out-of-state signature gatherers with high incidences of fraud.

Charming.

WI Dems have way more cash than GOP for recalls

DailyKos brings us the happy news: As of March 21, Wisconsin Democrats have $1.2 million more in cash than their Republican opponents (who, as you recall, voted to strip government workers of their collective bargaining rights).

Chris Bowers tells us:

—Almost all of the Democratic money came from small donors on Act Blue....

—The Democratic Party of Wisconsin spent a large amount of money because they are the central organizing hub for the recall petition gathering effort.

—The amount of money the Democratic committees have on hand exceeds the total amount of money all of the incumbent Senators facing recall have on hand

And randy Randy Hopper has $9,844 in debt!

No one should get too comfortable, though. You can bet that outside interests -- the Kochs, the DeVoses, Karl Rove's money machine, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- will funnel plenty of do-re-mi to the incumbent Republicans.

But the Washington Post's Greg Sargent believes the Democrats have the momentum right now. Writes Sargent:

Wow. In a sign that Wisconsin Democrats can still claim momentum in the recall wars, Dems today filed the signatures to trigger a recall election against a sixth Wisconsin GOP state senator — and this time, they filed an astonishing 166 percent of the number required, the highest yet...The enormous amount of signatures collected by Dems could help in the recall battles themselves, since having names and addresses of huge numbers of voters makes getting out the vote far easier.

What continues to be interesting about the organizing success state Dems and labor are having in Wisconsin is that it’s unfolding almost entirely under the radar of the national media, which has largely moved on from this story. And it’s happening outside the Beltway-based power infrastructure of the national Democratic Party.

The final battle lines are all but drawn.

Woo-hoo! 6th GOP Sen to face recall in WI

This time it's Rob Cowles, one of the eight Republican state senators who not only voted to strip collective bargaining rights from government workers but is eligible for recall. Wisconsin Democrats say they'll submit the signatures on Thursday.

Things are also looking good for recall efforts against Republican Sen. Glenn Grothman. Organizers are planning a rally on Friday.

Here's more good news: Efforts to recall two of the Fab 14 Democrats failed. Monday was the deadline to turn in enough signatures to recall Sen. Lena Taylor of Milwaukee and Sen. Fred Risser of Madison. They didn't make it. 

Sen. Spencer Coggs, another of the Fab 14 senators, may also escape recall. Today is the deadline to submit signatores, and we haven't heard a peep from the anti-Coggs group. 

Oh, and we'll recall Koch whore Gov. Scott Walker in 250 days.

Thank the WI recall volunteers

Take a few minutes to thank the volunteers who gathered recall petition signatures against the Republican senators who voted to end collective bargaining rights for government workers in Wisconsin. Their efforts were truly historic.

Already, petitions have been filed against five senators, Sens. Dan Hanky-Kapanke, randy Randy Hopper, Lex Luther Olsen, Subsidy Sheila Harsdorf and Alberta (not so) Darling. More recalls are expected to follow for the three remaining senators, Sens. Glenn Grothman, Robert Cowles and Mary Lazich.

Send your thank you here and see what appreciative people across the country have to say.

Mary Ann from Sheboygan, Wis., writes:

Thank you for fighting back. You may well be instrumental in saving our Democracy from becoming a Corpocracy. Last but not least, we will need the votes to complete this mission. Ever Onward!!!!

Jediah White from Madison, Wis., says:

Thank you so much for your willingness to take action, despite all the reasons it would be safer, easier, and less controversial not to. Please keep fighting the good fight!

Richard Bunker from Jenkintown, Pa., writes:

Thank you so much for giving your time and energy to this cause. We can't put up with the government giving huge tax breaks to big corporations, then trying to extract the money from teachers. Way to go!

We'd like to thank our Teamster brothers and sisters in Wisconsin!