Northwest Indiana Discussion

Wisconsin Democrats have announced they will submit the petition signatures in their effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker next Tuesday, January 17 — with a massive drop-off of boxes at the state’s election administration agency, the Government Accountability Board:

Meanwhile, Mary Spicuzza of the Wisconsin State Journal reports that the GAB is expecting to receive a total of 1.5 million signatures for the multiple recalls against Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, and four Republican state Senators.

Walker's approval and disapproval ratings both stood at 47 percent, down from a 51 percent approval rating that the same pollsters found last month. The current poll surveyed 716 Wisconsin residents who are registered to vote or said they plan to register. It was conducted from Feb. 16 through Sunday, and had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

Democrats Kill Wisconsin Jobs
to Spite Governor Scott Walker
American Thinker, by Frank Burke

On March 6, every Democrat in the Wisconsin State Senate, and one Republican, voted down a bill that could have streamlined the permit process and permitted the development of an iron mine in a depressed area of northern Wisconsin. The mine would have initially employed 600 to 700 workers (eventually as many as 2,200) and injected at least 1.5 billion dollars into the local economy. Additionally, it would have proven a boon to Joy Manufacturing and Falk Corp., two major manufacturers of mining equipment located in Milwaukee.

Following the vote, Gogebic Taconite, the proposed developer, announced that they were abandoning efforts in Wisconsin. Their comments: "Senate rejection of the mining reforms in Assembly Bill 426 sends a clear message that Wisconsin will not welcome iron mining. We get the message. GTac is ending plans to invest in a Wisconsin mine."

Comments by Democrat Senators and by Dale Schultz, the lone Republican who voted against the Bill, included the citation of environmental concerns. The statements were flatly rejected by Cathy Stepp, secretary of Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources, who stated that her agency would have been able to permit an iron mine in northern Wisconsin without harming the environment and blasted opponents of the permitting bill for "fear-mongering" (Wisconsin State Journal, March 9, 2012). She referenced the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA had been involved from the first and that their continued monitoring would ensure safety in the water supply and the environment generally.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/ ... z1ouI8zwTc

MADISON — About 930,000 signatures were submitted on petitions seeking the recall of Republican Gov. Scott Walker. That is what the head of the Wisconsin state elections board reported Monday.

Walker did not challenge any signatures, making it a near certainty that a recall election will be held. The earliest any primary will be is early May.

Walker starts out in trouble on a key number: His approval rating is 47%, to disapproval of 52%.

Against the two declared Democratic candidates, former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk edges Walker by 48%-47%, while the lesser-known state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout trails Walker by 46%-44%.

On Friday, March 30, Walker suffered two significant setbacks: a federal judge struck down two parts of his law that strips public service workers of their right to bargain collectively for fair wages and safe working conditions, and the state elections board set the date for the election to recall Walker.

[color=#000000]Walker administration releases job numbers
Associated Press, by Scott Bauer

MADISON (AP) - Gov. Scott Walker's administration released revised job creation figures Wednesday for the last three months of 2011 that he said show an increase in new jobs in Wisconsin during Walker's first year in office, attempting to debunk a central argument of those seeking to recall him on June 5.

While the recall was spurred by anger over Walker's successful effort effectively ending collective bargaining rights for most public workers, a major focus of the campaign has been how he's performed meeting his central 2010 campaign promise - creating 250,000 private sector jobs over four years.

http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/wis ... ob-numbers[/color]

Public-employee unions in Wisconsin have experienced a dramatic drop in membership — by more than half for the second-biggest union — since a law championed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker sharply curtailed their ability to bargain over wages and working conditions.

Now with Mr. Walker facing a recall vote Tuesday, voters will decide whether his policies in the centrist state should continue — or whether they have gone too far.

The election could mark a pivot point for organized labor.

Mr. Walker’s ouster would derail the political career of a rising Republican star and send a warning to other elected officials who are battling unions. But a victory for the governor, who has been leading his Democratic opponent in recent polls, would amount to an endorsement of an effort to curtail public-sector unions, which have been a pillar of strength for organized labor while private-sector membership has dwindled.

That could mean the sharp losses that some Wisconsin public-worker unions have experienced is a harbinger of similar unions’ future nationwide, union leaders fear. Failure to oust Mr. Walker and overturn the Wisconsin law “spells doom,” said Bryan Kennedy, the American Federation of Teachers’ Wisconsin president.

Wisconsin membership in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees-the state’s second-largest public-sector union after the National Education Association, which represents teachers-fell to 28,745 in February from 62,818 in March 2011, according to a person who has viewed Afscme’s figures. A spokesman for Afscme declined to comment.

The Justice Department Monday dispatched federal observers to Milwaukee to monitor the closely-watched recall election of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. The Voting Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division said Milwaukee is among specific voting locations required to provide assistance to Spanish speaking citizens. . . .

The Justice Department declined to say how many monitors have been sent to these locations, but from past practice the number is likely in the dozens. In prior general elections, the Justice Department has sent as many as one thousand federal observers and civil rights attorneys to coordinate federal activities and work with local elections officials.

Hours before the polls close in Wisconsin’s recall election, Gov. Scott Walker (R) is seeking to rally supporters -- by reminding them of the anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s death.
“President Reagan died on June 5, 2004,” Walker tweeted early Tuesday evening. “Let’s win one for the Gipper!”
Invoking Reagan on the campaign trail is hardly anything new. But using the anniversary of the former president’s death to encourage voters to go to the polls would seem to be something of an unorthodox tactic in the eleventh hour of a competitive race.