Republican Sabotage Mars Election Process In Wisconsin Again

Yesterday Blue America hosted a live chat with Wisconsin legislative heroes Sen. Chris Larson and Assemblywoman Sandy Pasch over at Crooks and Liars. He represents a district in southern Milwaukee Co. and Sandy's is further north and then beyond Milwaukee into Ouzaukee and a bit of Waukesha. She's running for the state Senate seat currently held by Scott Walker puppet Alberta Darling. So far the State GOP has failed in their efforts to recruit a fake Democrat to challenge Sandy to a primary, though not through lack of trying.


Yesterday Journal Sentinel columnist Daniel Bice confirmed the Republican Party's attempt to sabotage the Democratic efforts to replace the 6 recalled Republicans with progressive Democrats. He refers to it as "dirty tricks," but there is also a question of criminal behavior that needs to be looked at-- from a party notorious at trying to rig elections.

In letters obtained by No Quarter, local Republican Party officials are encouraging their GOP colleagues to collect enough signatures to get a fake Democratic candidate on the ballot in each of two upcoming recall elections.

The spoiler Democrats, who are identified by name in the letters, would run in the Democratic primaries for the seats now held by Republican Sens. Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac and Luther Olsen of Ripon.

Both of the fake Democrats have a history of giving almost exclusively to major Republicans.

"We need to make sure Democrat challengers face primaries to allow our Republicans time to mount a campaign," Dan Feyen, chairman of the 6th Congressional District Republican Party, wrote in the letter to "fellow conservatives" on Friday.

"A Democratic primary," Feyen continued, "will push the general election back by one month, so that Senator Hopper can have more time to organize a campaign against his liberal challenger."
That's verbatim what is in the other two-page letter encouraging support for the second fake Democratic candidate, except that note substitutes Olsen's name for Hopper's.

By running these fake Democrats, Republicans would force the Democratic challengers to spend money on a primary that could have been used in the general election. Plus, the spoiler candidates could launch negative attacks on the Democrats while the Republican incumbents remain above the fray.

Feyen confirmed that he sent his letter trying to get a "protest candidate" on the ballot in the Hopper race.

What's more, he said there's a good explanation for why his letter and the one written by local Republican officials in Olsen's district were virtually the same.

"It's something being coordinated by the RPW," he said, referring to the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Today might be a good day to consider bolstering the campaigns of Jessica King, deputy mayor of Oshkosh, who's running against Hopper, and Assemblyman Fred Clark, who's challenging Olsen. You can contribute to both their campaigns-- as well as to the other Democrats running against Walker's shills at Blue America's Beyond Recalls.

Randy Hopper-- Wisconsin Republican Icon: This Is What These People Are All About

Hopper, using his adorable kids as campaign props before deserting them to shack up with his 25 year old mistress

Perhaps you got an advance letter from Daily Kos yesterday about polling they had done regarding the Wisconsin recall efforts. This passage stood out:

Democrats need to win three of these eight districts in order to regain a majority in the Wisconsin state Senate. As it happens, Democrats currently lead in three districts:

• Senator Dan Kapanke trails a generic Democrat 55-41
• Senator Randy Hopper trails 49-44
• Senator Luther Olsen trails 49-47

Last week we talked a little about Kapanke (SD-32), a right-wing fanatic who ran for Congress against conservative Democrat Ron Kind in November-- and lost (with 47%). His senatorial district gave Obama a heavy 61% win after having previously supported Kerry and Gore against Bush. His goose looks cooked.

But let's turn to Randy Hopper for a moment. The 45 year old Fond du Lac state Senator was elected in 2008 by the narrowest of margins-- 41,904 votes (50.05%) to 41,741 (49.86%). Obama beat McCain in the senatorial district 51-47%. If the recall election were held today, his constituents would turn him out.

When asked if they would vote for Hopper or someone else if a recall election were held right now, 54 percent said they'd vote for someone else, versus only 43 percent they'd vote for Hopper.

And this was before he voted to take away the rights of unions to bargain collectively, which needs to be put in the context of another statistic: "54% of voters in Hopper's district, said if their Senator voted for Walker's plan, it would make them more likely to vote for someone else. His opponents are close to collecting the 15,269 valid signatures of electors residing within the 18th district. And one of those signatures comes from Mrs. Hopper. If fact, Alysia Hopper says Randy hasn't resided in the district since last May. Randy is shacking up with a GOP legislative aid (left) twenty years his junior, although it's a female so Republicans don't care. "Randy moved out," she said in a letter to a TV station, "without attempting marital counseling, as of May 2010 and now lives mostly in Madison... [and] has caused great emotional pain for my children and me." Hopper, who campaigned as a family values religious conservative, has gone into hiding, citing "threats".

For someone who just helped to eviscerate the livelihood of 10,000s of Wisconsin families, State Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) is very touchy about the topic of his own family, or at least he seems that way through his flacks.

It was first reported at Mal Contends on March 11 that protesters outside the recall target, Hopper, house last week in Fond du Lac were met by his wife who reportedly came out and told them: Hopper no longer lives there, but with his 25-year-old mistress in Madison.

Two sources in Fond du Lac close to the recall effort say the Hopper maid has signed the legal-sized recall sheet. The maid reportedly said it's likely Hopper's soon-to-be-ex wife will also sign the recall petition.

Blogging Blue reported March 11 the woman in question is a former state Senate committee staffer and now-ex-GOP-connected lobbyist. [Blogging Blue has an independent server and has received so much traffic that the server crashed, but the server should be up soon.]

...Even if Hopper is not speaking, his non-denial from his undisclosed location reveal a man afraid to face the public he was sent to Madison to represent.

There are now rumors that Hopper may resign. He seems to have an awful lot of baggage.