Democrats are rightly jubilant about yesterday's attempted recalls of Sen. Jim Holperin and Sen. Bob Wirch. Both men won decisively, as did fellow Democrat Sen. Dave Hansen a month ago.
That should put the hatchet in the Republican fantasy that voters were upset about the 14 Democrats' flight to Illinois to slow down Gov. Scott Walker's collective bargaining bill. Voters were clearly with the Fab 14 on this one, not with Walker and the string-pulling Koch brothers and the tantrum-throwing Fitzgeralds.
So what really happened?
The enthusiasm gap has vanished. In 2010, too many Democrats and moderates failed to show up and vote so Republicans and tea partiers swept the state in a historic landslide. (If it wasn't historic, it sure felt like it.)
Well, Democrats got their mojo back this summer. And they've got Scott Walker to thank.
As the folks at One Wisconsin Now have noted, Democrats performed better in these recalls than they did in last fall's gubernatorial election—even though six of the nine recalls were on Republican turf that Walker carried last fall. I agree with other commenters—Walker should be feeling a bit of agita right now.
But the enthusiasm gap narrowed long before these elections. Think about it: Who showed up to the historic Capitol protests? Democrats, union members and newly woken-up moderates were there in force.
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Now, who failed to show up to the miserable Tea Party-sponsored counter-protests? Tea party “patriots” were at home, confident that they didn't have to put their butts on the line because their guys held power in all three branches of state government.
Then there was the actual circulation of petitions for recalls. At this point, the unions and Democrats got their ground game going and gathered enough signatures to recall six Republican senators. This was a true grassroots movement across all segments of the state.
And the Republicans? There was so little enthusiasm for doing the hard work of circulating petitions that the Republican Party of Wisconsin spent almost $100,000 on a Colorado firm that hired all sorts of migrant workers to collect signatures. At this point, the Republicans should have seen the writing on the wall. Although they gathered enough signatures to force recalls of three Democrats, there was very little grassroots support for it. The Republicans outsourced their campaign, and it showed. A Republican-friendly base of support never got built in these Democratic districts.
The Republicans' one brilliant—and it goes without saying, utterly deceitful—move was to run fake Democrats in two recall elections, thereby lengthening their hold on power for another few weeks. But here again, it shows that there was no public enthusiasm for their little gambit. It was a delaying strategy crafted by the party bosses, nothing more.
On to the recalls.
Yes, Democrats failed to take the state Senate. But they're close enough that they can pick off one or two reasonable Republicans (there are one or two left in office, aren't there?) and hopefully moderate or torpedo some of Walker's more extreme bills.
Even Walker is saying that he wants to be more bipartisan in the coming legislative session. On the one hand, what else is there for him to do? I shudder at the thought that there are additional hard-core right-wing bills in the works. Ending BadgerCare? Attacking women's health? Making Wisconsin a right-to-work state? Privatizing the prisons? Giving the green light to a new nuclear power plant? The mind reels.
Then again, Walker is smart to talk about wanting to work with Democrats because he hopes that a more moderate tone in the coming months will take the fire out of the Recall Walker movement, which will be gearing up this fall.
Now, I know that a new Public Policy Polling survey shows that 50% of the state opposes a Walker recall, despite his dismal approval numbers.
But I think that the recall results, the Democrats' new lease on life and Walker's own inability to work with others will breathe new life into the Recall Walker movement.
After all, angry Democrats around the state didn't get to vote in this summer's recalls, because they don't live in Senate districts that had an election. These are angry Democrats in Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, Beloit, Janesville—these are folks who want to cast yet another vote against Walker, with relish. They will not be rolled by a suddenly kinder, less partisan Walker. They do have long-term memories, you know.
So kudos, Gov. Walker. You've breathed new life into the Democratic-labor-progressive-populist movement in Wisconsin. And they're coming for you (and your allies) next.
And kudos to the Dems and their allies for doing the unthinkable: recalling two Republican senators and successfully defending all of the Democratic legislators up for recall. You've got your mojo back.
