Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Over 1.9 Million Petition Signatures Filed With GAB To Recall Governor Scott Walker And Lt. Gov. Kleefisch In Wisconsin

Statewide volunteers collected more than 1 million signatures to recall Republican Governor Scott Walker and more than 845,000 to recall Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch (R). Another 86,600 signatures were filed to recall four Republican state senators, including the Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.

By H. Nelson Goodson
January 17, 2012

Madison - On Tuesday, organizers filed more than 1.9 million petition signatures with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) to Recall Governor Scott Walker, Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and four Republican state senators. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin, United Wisconsin, grassroots organizations and more than 25,000 volunteers throughout 72 counties in the state gathered enough petition signatures to force a recall election against Governor Scott Walker and Lieutenant (Lt.) Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, both Republicans.
A minimum of the required 540,208 signatures were needed to force a recall election against Governor Walker and Lt. Governor Kleefisch before the January 17, 2012 dateline expired.
Recall Scott Walker organizers had thousands of volunteers screen petitions at an undisclosed location in Madison. They went through line-by-line, name-by-name to screen out errors and mistakes before officially turning over the signatures to the GAB on Tuesday, according to Mike Tate, Chair, Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Tate in a news release says, since Julie Wells of Jefferson County first launched the Recall Walker campaign, volunteers have collected 105,000 signatures in the first 96 hours, 300,000 in the first 12 days and 507,000 in the first month.
The GAB will take about eight or more weeks to sort out and remove duplicate names or names deemed invalid with the aid of a computer program specialized to recognize duplicate names. The recall Walker petitions will be posted online in the GAB website.
Republican Governor Walker supporters who are expected to challenge the recall, will also get a chance to challenge suspected petitions with duplicate names, invalid names or addresses.
The GAB will make the final certification of the recall petitions once they complete their inspection and challenges are exhausted. The recall election will then be scheduled and Governor Walker becomes the first Wisconsin governor to face a recall. The recall Walker and Kleefisch election is expected to cost at least $9 million, according to the GAB.
Governor Walker was in New York City at a Park Avenue $2,500 per person fundraiser when the signatures were filed with the GAB in Wisconsin. The recall election allows Governor Walker to raise an unlimited amount of funds for his re-election campaign.
Walker will be the third U.S. governor to be recall in the nation's history. Only two governors have successfully been recalled, Governor Lynn Frazier from North Dakota in 1921 and Governor Gray Davis from California in 2003.
Petition signatures to recall three Republican state senators were also filed by Democrats with the GAB on Tuesday. They are Senators, Terry Moulton (21,000 signatures), Pam Galloway (21,000 signatures) and Van Wanguard (24,000 signatures). A separate recall committee (non-Democrat) filed 20,600 petition signatures to recall Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald from the 13 Senate District.
The Public Policy Polling (PPP) Democratic firm released a survey on Tuesday, which polled 522 likely Democrat primary voters with a margin of error plus or minus of 4.3 percentage points  showed poll results for four potential Democratic candidates that might challenge Governor Walker in a primary recall election. The potential Democratic candidates were, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who showed a lead with 27 percent of those surveyed compared to Kathleen Falk, former Dane County Executive with 22 percent, Dave Obey, former U.S. Congressman with 21 percent and state Senator Tim Cullen with a mere 11 percent, the PPP reported.

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