Working Cheeseheads Rejoice! Organizers Submit 1 Million Signatures to Recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

A watershed moment has occurred today in Wisconsin. One million signatures have been collected in the effort to recall Governor Scott Walker. The magnitude of this accomplishment sends a simple message, loud and clear: Governor Walker’s ideological war on workers will be met with stiff resistance.

To successfully force a recall election, organizers needed to gather a little over 540,000 valid signatures, or 25 percent of all of the votes cast in the election that put Walker in office last January. By gathering over one million signatures, organizers have ensured that this threshold will be met and that a recall election will occur. Today’s triumph is a collective one. It belongs to the volunteer activists who battled through harsh weather conditions all winter to collect signatures; it belongs to UFCW members who have been active and present since the very beginning; it belongs to the working families of Wisconsin who will at last see Governor Walker face accountability for his actions.

But let’s back up a little. This recall effort is a long and ongoing process – one that arose when Governor Walker and anti-worker legislators in Wisconsin used a budget shortfall as an excuse to launch an ideological attack on the collective bargaining rights of teachers, nurses, social workers and other public employees. This budget plan was never discussed during Governor Walker’s gubernatorial campaign and displayed his willingness to sell out Wisconsin’s working families in order to please his corporate cronies. This lie ignited the masses and made Wisconsin residents realize they couldn’t stand by and wait until the Governor was up for reelection – they had to demand a recall immediately.

This recall effort isn’t just about a campaign lie. It’s also about Governor Walker’s inability to govern effectively. Since he took office 65,000 people have lost health care, workers have been stripped of their collective bargaining rights, and public education has faced the largest cuts in the state’s history. Wisconsin simply can’t continue down this perilous path.

If you needed any more proof that Governor Walker is woefully out of touch with the people of Wisconsin – here it is: Where is Governor Walker today, the day his constituents have risen up to hold him accountable for his anti-worker agenda? Not in Wisconsin creating jobs for those in need. Not in Wisconsin doing anything. Instead, he’s in New York fundraising from special interests groups so that he’ll be able to defend his own job. That pretty much says it all.

Wisconsin Voters Hit Polls Today to Begin Recall of "Walker Six"

Wisconsin voters are voting for something important today. They're voting in primaries for Democratic opponents to face the the six Republican Senators who helped ram through Governor Scott Walker's bill to eliminate collective bargaining back in March. But it just wouldn't be a Wisconsin election without more dirty tricks from Republicans, right? So of course, working voters are facing a particularly dirty trick from Walker's allies today.

As the AFL-CIO reports:

Today, Wisconsin working family voters are taking another step to take back their government from Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) radical, anti-family, anti-community, pro-Koch Brothers agenda. And they have to defeat a Republican dirty trick to do it...these primary elections have been marred by Walker supporters who recruited fake candidates to run in the elections in an attempt to sow confusion among voters. The winners of today’s elections will face the six Republicans in an Aug. 9 general election.

But workers are on the case. Union members, including many UFCW members, are out in force to knock on doors and educate folks about the primary candidates today. The vote today is an important first step in recalling the Walker Six. A gain of even just three seats would break Walker’s stranglehold on the Senate. So all eyes are on Wisconsin today--and if you're a Wisconsinite, don't forget to vote!

Kochapolooza: Walker Admits He Lied

UFCW members in Madison, WI with Scott Walker puppet.

With real issues - a jobs crisis and budget crisis - facing Americans, what have Republicans been doing? Today they staged a hearing with Governor Scott Walker and other anti-worker activists that was bought and paid for by the Koch brothers. More than half of the Republican House Oversight Committee members, including Chairman Issa, are recipients of Koch money, and the so-called expert witnesses? Three of the four have also received money from the Koch brothers. (Walker’s DC visit coincides with a damning new report that details how he and David Prosser “quietly worked to allow Koch’s many Georgia Pacific paper plants to pollute thousands of pounds of phosphorus in Wisconsin’s water.”)

However, Governor Scott Walker's misdeeds have been so profound that the Wisconsin Republican was STILL embarrassed at this not-so-impartial hearing. Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Gerry Connolly questioned Walker thoroughly, and finally got him to admit what the non-partisan PolitiFact had already examined and judged completely false – that he never campaigned on stripping collective bargaining rights. Walker and national Republicans have used that as a key talking point, but today Walker made explicit that he lied to voters by claiming he had signaled his agenda during the election.Walker also admitted that key provisions of his so-called Budget Repair Bill had nothing to do with repairing the budget. 

But despite the Democrats' vigilance and Walker's admissions, Rep. Issa's “Kochapolooza” hearing wasn't about budgets, jobs, or corporate responsibility - that's for sure. It was about muzzling nurses, teachers, firefighters, and other public workers - the people who keep this country running - so that the Koch brothers and other CEOs and greedy Wall Street types can line their already overstuffed pockets with even more money. All this while many ordinary Americans are just barely getting by.


These Republican politicians should be focusing on creating jobs. That's what will get America moving again. That's what will fix our budget crises.  But instead, Rep. Issa is using this hearing as nothing but an excuse to sell the cruel and misguided Ryan Budget plan - the plan that would balance our budget on the backs of the poor and middle class, senior citizens, students, and working families - while cutting taxes even more for the wealthiest Americans and for Big Business.

House Republicans need to get serious and work with the American people, not against us. But in light of this hearing and the recent threats to shut down the government, does it really seem likely that House Republicans will be abandoning their ideological crusades and political crusades to focus on job creation anytime soon? America's working families shouldn't hold their breath.