Image Source: sroblog.com

When Wisconsin residents and potential voters review the information that surrounds these exciting recall elections, one has to ascertain what the REAL issues are and what’s at stake. To coin a question that my father always posed to me when I was trying to get to the essence of a particular matter (notice I didn’t say “seek the truth…”), my father would ask me, “Who’s paying for this?” His goal was to get me to question the motives of proponents and opponents of an issue, realizing there was often a financial component or cost to bear in whatever the outcome was. In these elections, there are several competing objectives, huge financial stakes and the veritable balance of power most political parties wish to maintain and increase.

The frequency of these WI recall elections is unprecedented in the United States! According to one political scholar (“a recall expert”), since 1908 there have only been 20 recorded recall elections in the US; Wisconsin is scheduled to have NINE such elections in less than a month! Many people feel that WI Gov. Scott Walker’s decision to:

  • Severely limit the collective bargaining rights of public employees
  • Support redistricting or gerrymandering
  • Enact stricter voter identification rules( that may have a detrimental impact on the voting privilege of ethnic minorities, the poor and the elderly)
  • Pass conceal & carry gun laws (against the objections of Wisconsin’s banking associations)
  • Pass tax cuts that cut benefit corporations and WI’s wealthy(while curbing spending on education and other support programs)

have enabled him to further many hallmarks of the national Republican agenda but don’t reflect the platform that Gov. Walker ran on.

But why Wisconsin? And why now? Joshua Spivak, who writes the Recall Elections Blog  said that Wisconsin was a natural place for a recall to happen because it is a state where political control regularly switches from one party to another, raising the stakes for a recall effort and making it more attractive.

“Wisconsin’s a real battleground state,” Spivak said. “It makes sense that it would happen in a state that has the possibility of going either way.” Over the last major national elections, WI as proven to be a battleground state. The potential implications of these recall elections are huge, as evidenced by almost $30 million being spent on campaigns with a substantial portion coming from outside Wisconsin.  The intriguing aspect of all this is that shifting the balance of power in the WI statehouse will have no impact on the passed legislation… all those controversial laws are on Wisconsin’s books and in the Republican’s victory bag. But the symbolic outcome of these recall results will be huge and will carry momentum into the 2012 national elections. One scholar states these outcomes will carry political currency for Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee, Ohio and Florida, where Republicans scored political upsets the last major election cycle.

Keenan A. Walker

Milwaukee, Wisconsin