Will California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon Be Recalled For Betraying His Constituents?

Like Trump, a liar and manipulator

A couple years ago, I was driving out to City of Hope in Duarte and was able to listen to a whole segment on KPCC, an interview with in-coming Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. He spoke very eloquently and forcefully about environmental abuses and dangerous industrial and commercial pollution in working class residential communities. It was very inspiring and I immediately called-- all excited-- then-candidate for Congress Nanette Barragan. An environmental champion who, as a small town mayor had taken on Big Oil and won a battle to prevent offshore drilling, Nanette was running against the single most corrupt member of the state legislature, Isadore Hall, a guy notorious for taking money from Big Oil and voting for their interests in Sacramento. Nanette was the underdog in the race-- by far-- and I figured an influential figure like Rendon could give her campaign a much-needed boost.

When I told her, excitedly, about Rendon's interview, she laughed. "He's backing Hall," she told me. I was gobsmacked. I had never heard a more persuasive argument for the premise of Nanette's entire campaign than what Rendon had just said. In recent days, all of California has learned that what Anthony Rendon says and what Anthony Rendon does are entirely unrelated. Anthony Rendon-- at the behest of Jerry Brown, another hypocrite-- killed the Medicare-for-All bill that the state Senate had passed.

Many voters are now leary of any promises from Democratic politicians. And they should be. Over the weekend, the L.A. Times noted that enraged activists are doing what's necessary to recall Rendon. It can't happen fast enough-- not just to Rendon but to all political betrayers of their constituents everywhere in America. Reporter Melanie Mason:

When Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) halted a measure to establish single-payer healthcare in California, the bill's most dedicated backers immediately called for him to be removed from office.

Now, more than a month later, single-payer advocates have taken the first formal step to follow through on their threat, giving Rendon's office this week notice of intent to circulate a recall petition.

Rendon's move to stop the single-payer bill-- which he called "woefully incomplete," noting it passed the state Senate without a method to pay for it-- was the catalyst for the outcry.

"If we recall the Assembly speaker, maybe someone else [will be] willing to push this bill, to get it out of the rules committee and send it to the Assembly to get a vote on it," said Jessica Covarrubias, a proponent of the effort. "Maybe that will help everyone get healthcare."

Covarrubias, a 27-year-old law student from South Gate, described the recall campaign as "literally a grassroots effort." She first learned of the recall campaign when single-payer activists, incensed by Rendon's action, launched a door-knocking drive to inform voters in his district.

The notice, which proponents mailed on Tuesday and was received by Rendon's office Friday, was signed by 60 people; at least 40 signatures must be deemed valid, belonging to registered voters of his Southeast Los Angeles County district. It was filed by Stephen Elzie, an Irvine-based USC law professor who is acting as an attorney for the effort.

...The recall effort faces tough odds. As the powerful Assembly speaker, Rendon has been a robust fundraiser, ending 2016 with more than $1.2 million in the bank. Other labor groups, including unions representing construction workers and grocery clerks, publicly sided with the speaker's decision to shelve the single-payer bill and could serve as as a well-financed cavalry should Rendon face a heated campaign to oust him.

Still, this week's step forward in the recall effort underscores how activist anger over Rendon's decision continues to simmer weeks after the measure, SB 562, was blocked.

Last week, the California Nurses Assn., which sponsored the legislation, paid for two mailers to be sent in Rendon's district, assailing his move as "holding healthcare hostage" and "protecting politicians, not people's healthcare." Both mailers encouraged recipients to call or visit Rendon's office to voice their displeasure, although the flyers stopped short of calling for a recall.

Michael Lighty, policy director for the nurses' group, said the union was not involved with the recall effort, focusing instead on pressuring Rendon to let the single-payer bill move forward.

Tuesday's The Big Day In Wisconsin-- Will Women Rescue The State?

About a million people signed petitions this year demanding Scott Walker be recalled. And Tuesday's the day. It's Walker versus a so-so Democrat, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, an unlikely hero but... all we've got to face down the dire threat from the destructive, Koch-financed far right. And if we don't beat them in Wisconsin... all hell could break loose across the country. As Andy Kroll warned on Saturday, "Coming soon to your state: The anti-union, education-cutting, free-market-leaning, divide-and-conquer playbook of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. According to a leading conservative activist, the Walker agenda in Wisconsin is the new conservative game plan for all states in the union." But there's a case being made that it's the Republican War on Women, of which Walker has been an eager leader, that will decide the Wisconsin vote Tuesday more than anything else.

[W]hat began last year as a backlash to the governor’s landmark antiunion bill has in many respects become a test run for the national elections to come in November, and the alleged “war on women” that has played out on the presidential stage has also taken shape here.  

In that way, Wisconsin could be a window on how the issue will play out nationwide in the fall. For one, it has made Walker’s battle to fend off his recall harder, with polls showing women viewing him far less favorably than do men. Moreover, it has kindled the fire of women like Kunkel, who are becoming politically engaged-- some for the first time-- as they see his reforms as unraveling the rights they fought so hard to win.

Walker’s name became especially linked with the alleged Republican “war on women” on Good Friday in early April. That’s when news came out that the previous day, Walker had quietly signed four bills.

One bill repealed Wisconsin’s 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which had allowed women and minorities to sue for employment discrimination at the state level. Another ended a 2010 ban on abstinence-only sex education in public schools. The remaining two banned insurance companies participating in the federal health-care reform law from covering some abortions and required an exam by a physician when a patient seeks an abortion-inducing drug.

Activists suggest that those bills were only the tip of the iceberg. Walker’s highly controversial move to end collective bargaining rights for public workers exempted law-enforcement personnel and firefighters, who are overwhelming male, while affecting wage-and-benefit negotiations for teachers and public health nurses, who are mostly female, they note. They add that a newly enacted Voter ID law creates more difficulties for women than men and that Walker’s budget cut all state funding ($2 million) for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading provider of abortions, which also provides other services to low-income women.

...Polls suggest that women have increasingly turned against Walker even as men continue to strongly back him. In 2010, when Walker first faced Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in a gubernatorial vote, women preferred Mayor Barrett 51 to 48 percent-- though male voters pushed Walker to victory. Now, the two candidates are facing off again in the recall vote, and women favor Barrett 52 to 42 percent, according to a Marquette University poll released May 30. By contrast, men back Walker 58 to 36 percent in the May 30 poll.

...At the April rally in Madison, the majority of the approximately 700 people who showed up in rainy, 40-degree weather clearly were middle-age or older. The leader of a group calling itself the Raging Grannies told protesters, “Fifty years ago, we were marching for the right of women to have some control over their own bodies. We fought that fight, all these grannies up here. We did not think we were going to be spending our old age doing it again, but we are not giving up this fight.” 

This rallying cry has echoes throughout Wisconsin. At a noisy primary-election gathering in Milwaukee for Barrett, Joan Blaschke of Brookfield, Wis., stood out from the crowd in her elegant black-and-white suit and diamond jewelry-- this at a gathering where many wore wore T-shirts and baseball caps sporting labor union logos. 

Ms. Blaschke is a late convert to the Democratic cause, but she says Walker’s recent actions so appalled her that she volunteered to help his opponent. “I voted for George Bush,” she said, but now that she’s taken a closer look at national politics, she has decided, “I don’t think I like any of the Republican ideas.” 

Blaschke, a retired teacher, says she paid little attention to the women’s movement in the ‘70s, but adds, “I’m feeling it now. I think there’s just going to be such a trickle-down effect.” 

As for Kunkel, who had never before dabbled in political causes, she was motivated by reading the Unite Women Facebook page, which told of efforts around the country like those in Wisconsin to move toward abstinence-only education in schools and to add restrictions on birth control and abortions.

Within days of visiting the site, Kunkel had started a Wisconsin Facebook page for Unite Women group and volunteered to organize the Madison protest rally. 

“My world is based on science.  We know that, numerically, women are the majority, but in terms of politics, we’re still a minority,” she says. “The way women gain their biggest voices in general is to speak and act collectively.”

Cory Chisel and The Wandering Sons... What People On Our Side Listen To In Wisconsin

The first time I heard Cory Chisel and The Wandering Sons their music reminded me vaguely of The BoDeans, a band I used to work with at Reprise. I was about 110 miles off-- just under two hours, mostly up US 41-- from Waukesha, home of The BoDeans to Appleton, home of the Wandering Sons. People in Wisconsin know them-- their song "Born Again" was Record of the Year in 2010-- but they haven't broken out nationally yet. Their new album Old Believers will be out at the end of the month, And this summer they're doing tour dates with Murder by Death some weeks and with Norah Jones other weeks. Tomorrow they're playing the Do Division Festival in Chicago (the Damen Stage at 5:30 pm). I won't get to see them until August 10 when they open for Norah Jones at the Hollywood Bowl.

That all said, the music speaks for itself-- musically... and otherwise. A band from Wisconsin... just look at the clip they put together. In fact, listen to the song again. And remind everyone you know that Tuesday is the day to say no to the Koch brothers takeover of American democracy by voting out Scott Walker. And, if you're not in Wisconsin, please consider a contribution to help Rob Zerban stop Paul Ryan (before it's too late).



And if you live in Waukesha or Appleton... or anywhere else in Wisconsin, the state still has same-day-registration. You can show up Tuesday, register to vote on the spot and then vote. A vote in Wisconsin this Tuesday can be an opportunity to strike a blow for American democracy in that torn and battered state. If you haven't been following it closely, here's a video from last week's debate. Tom Barrett makes the case, maybe not as well as Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons... but he makes the case well enough to give him your vote.

Where Was Joe McCarthy From Again? And What About All Those Congressmen Who Were Pro-Nazi During The Run-up To World War II?

My dad was an FBI agent when World War II started. He was a Nazi-hunter-- stationed in Milwaukee. Just outside of Milwaukee, in Ozaukee County, there was a Nazi training camp (or "summer camp"), Camp Hindenburg in Grafton. Wisconsin was crawling with Nazi sympathizers and fascism has always been considered a viable alternative to democracy in certain circles. Joe McCarthy was a hero and so are anti-democracy moles Scott Walker and Paul Ryan. This weekend the New York Times Magazine asked how Wisconsin has become the most politically divisive place in America, but didn't add "again." Dan Kaufman points out that, "according to recent polling, Wisconsin, once known for progressive policy and upper-Midwestern civility, is now the most politically polarized state in the nation." But progressive policy and upper-Midwestern civility isn't all the state has been known for-- not by a long shot.

The fight to turn Wisconsin into a bastion of neo-fascist plutocracy didn't just begin with Scott Walker's anti-democracy jihad and his plans to eliminate collective-bargaining rights for a the state’s public-employee unions. As the Times makes clear, Walker's "move to end collective bargaining placed him at the forefront of a national conservative strategy. His attack on public-employee unions was lauded by Mitt Romney, John Boehner and Karl Rove, and he has received significant financial support from the billionaire conservative donors Charles and David Koch." He told his cabinet he wanted "to change the course of history." This phase of reintroducing fascism to Wisconsin was a counterrevolution and the revolution it was countering was the American Revolution.

After signing Act 10, Governor Walker told a reporter for The Associated Press that the bill was “innovative” and “progressive” — words chosen perhaps because they resonate with the enduring pride many Wisconsin citizens still feel about their state’s pioneering political history. The current Wisconsin Blue Book contains a 68-page essay extolling the achievements of the 1911 Legislature, which included the establishment of the first workmen’s-compensation program, laws limiting labor for women and children and the passage of a forest-conservation act. President Theodore Roosevelt described Wisconsin as a “laboratory for wise, experimental legislation to secure the social and political betterment of the people as a whole.” Native icons like the populist senator and governor Robert (Fighting Bob) La Follette and the conservationist Aldo Leopold still loom in the state’s collective consciousness and legislative record. More recently, Senator Russ Feingold cast the lone vote against the U.S.A. Patriot Act in 2001.

The law that Act 10 overturned had been in place since 1959, when Wisconsin became the first state to recognize collective-bargaining rights for municipal employees. Senator Fred Risser, who began his legislative career in 1956, is the country’s longest-serving state legislator, and he was on the committee that introduced that measure. “That bill was bipartisan, or it would have never gotten through in the first place,” he said. In 1967, collective bargaining was expanded under the Republican governor Warren P. Knowles to include state employees. The Senate voted 31-0 in favor of the expansion. “For 50 years we had relative labor peace,” Risser said. “Not in 50 years was there ever a partisan vote on those contracts. They were almost always unanimously accepted.”

Some Republicans also lamented the end of the long bipartisan consensus on labor rights. Dick Spanbauer, a former Marine and self-described “pro-life, pro-family Christian,” was one of four Republican Assemblymen to vote against Act 10. “The leadership told me, ‘Dick, we don’t need unions anymore,’ ” he told me. “Really? What’s changed? Is a company going to say you don’t need to work 12 hours?” Spanbauer, like his father, had worked much of his adult life in factories in Oshkosh. “They don’t understand anything about the working class,” he said about his Republican colleagues. “They thought you could just go crush somebody’s voice and get away with it.” Spanbauer is retiring this year.

By this time next week, Wisconsin will probably have finished counting the votes in the recall. Scott Walker will have spent over $25 million, much of it from the same kinds of wealthy self-styled aristocrats who were never tried for treason after organizing a coup against FDR. His Democratic opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, will have spent about a million. Walker isn't really campaigning; he's just spending... and spending... and spending. And hoping a few more than half the voters in the state are just clueless enough to vote for him-- and against themselves. All that money has bought him the slimmest of leads. One poll showed likely voters breaking for Walker 50-45% and another showed him up 50-42%. That's all $25 million could buy? Maybe it would have helped if DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz hadn't dragged her ass for so long, refusing to spend a nickel until it looked like it was too late-- just as she had done at the DCCC several years ago when, working for her financial patrons, the Fanjul sugar barons, she refused to endorse 3 Democrats running against 3 GOP incumbents, effectively sabotaging their campaigns and ceding the 3 winnable seats to the Republicans.

Public Policy Polling should have a new poll out this week. Their last-- in early March before the tidal wave of outside fascist money hit the state-- showed that the state wanted the Democrats to take control of the Senate, which would, in effect, stop Walker's agenda dead in its tracks.

A new poll by Public Policy Polling finds that Wisconsin voters would prefer that Democrats control the State Senate rather than Republicans, 48%-41%.  Nearly all Democratic and Republican voters want their own party to control the chamber, but the scales are tipped by independent voters who say they would rather Democrats run the State Senate by a 45%-31% margin.

As controversy continues to swirl around a possible upcoming recall election of Governor Scott Walker, voters say that in general, they think Wisconsin should have recall elections by a 53%-41% margin.  Democrats support the idea of recall elections 86%-9%, Republicans oppose recall elections 16%-78%, and independents support them 56%-37%.

“Recall elections have become a polarizing issue in Wisconsin politics, but a majority of independent voters side with Democrats in having the option to use them,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling.

What's A Bigger Wisconsin Problem-- Scott Walker Or Paul Ryan?

Made by Koch Industries-- like Angel Soft toilet paper

Something over 100,000 signatures have been counted on the recall petitions for Wisconsin Koched-up fascist Scott Walker... in just 4 days. No doubt that's why right wing thugs have taken to threats of violence to protect their gains against the forces of democracy.

The fight to recall Walker and the battle to keep retiring Senator Herb Kohl's seat blue-- by electing Tammy Baldwin-- are taking up all the oxygen in the room. But we can't lose track of how crucial it is, not just for Wisconsin, but for all of America to stop Paul Ryan. More than anyone else, he is the political spokesperson for the 1% and Wall Street has every intention of seeing him all the way to the White House. There can't be anything in American politics more important that ending Ryan's career.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party, possibly at the direction of the DCCC, has never seriously taken on any of Ryan's reelection bids. In a district that was won by Obama over McCain, the Democrats have actually prevented serious candidates from taking on Ryan. This year that has changed. Although the DCCC won't lift a finger to help, the Wisconsin Democratic Party has rallied behind Kenosha County Supervisor Rob Zerban, a thoughtful progressive who is making inroads where Democrats have never even tried. Sunday Rob penned an OpEd for a local newspaper, making his case:

How did we get here? Why as a nation are we talking about what we can cut from people instead of what we need to grow our economy?

There is one man primarily responsible for leading our national discussion in the wrong direction-- Paul Ryan. He has championed selfishness among the wealthy and absolved them of any responsibility for their neighbors or to pitch in to help this country.

Paul Ryan is relentlessly focused on slashing our safety net instead of fixing this economy. If you dare to question Paul Ryan about his cuts to Social Security, you could get tackled and arrested. That happened a few months ago to an elderly constituent and you can watch the video right here.

This situation is out of control! We are seeing uprisings across the country. These are the men and women who educate our children, they built our homes, they built and fix our cars, they make the trains run on time, they deliver your mail and pick up your trash. This mess is not their fault and this effort by Paul Ryan to blame the middle class for this economy is dishonest.

Paul Ryan's philosophy has failed us all. It is time for him to step aside and let me do a better job. The time has come for a change of philosophy and a change of leadership.

I started two small businesses and love that in America we can be entrepreneurs and can create wealth. But this opportunity comes with responsibility. There are rules and because of Republican deregulation, no one was watching to make sure these rules were followed. Now, across the country we have lost trillions of dollars of investments and real estate values have plummeted because people like Paul Ryan thought it was wrong to regulate.

Let's make a statement. Let's make history together. Let's remove Ryan from office and inspire the nation with this victory.

I am working to get our national focus back to how we can help, not how we can cut. Let's remember that we are talking about our neighbors, friends, and families, and they deserve our respect and our support. Our way out of this crisis is to work together and we need a Congress that solves problems, not creates them.

Selfishness has failed us and it is time for a new set of values. Let's start right here and right now.

If you'd like to help Rob in his battle against Wall Street and the Koch's in taking down their prized politician, you can do it at Blue America's Stop Paul Ryan page. Contributions to Rob go directly to Rob's campaign so he can get his message out in southeast Wisconsin. Contributions to Blue America on that page will go for our own uncoordinated little surprises for Congressman Ryan as the campaign kicks into high gear next year.

Will Wisconsin Voters Muster What It Takes To Rid Their State Of Scott Walker?

In 2010, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker beat Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett 1,128,941 (52%) to 1,004,303 (47%) to become governor of Wisconsin. In Milwaukee County, where-- for obvious reasons, the two men are best know, Barrett won by a landslide-- 209,932 (62%) to 128,612 (38%)-- and in the state's seat of government, Dane County, it was an even bigger landslide against Walker-- 149,699 (68%) to 68,238 (31%). By May the rest of the state had gotten to know Governor 1% as well as the voters in Milwaukee and Dane counties-- and there was a very widespread feeling of buyers' remorse. PPP reported that most Wisconsin voters would have voted against Walker if they knew now about him what they didn't know last November.

Scott Walker's popularity has continued to decline over the last three months and Wisconsin voters now say they would vote to recall him if there was an election today. They also say they would pick either Russ Feingold or Tom Barrett over Walker in a head to head match up.

43% of voters now approve of the job Walker is doing to 54% who disapprove. When PPP polled the state in late February it was 46% of voters approving to 52% disapproval. Walker's numbers now are virtually identical to where they were before with Democrats and Republicans but with independents he's seen his popularity continue to decline from a 45/53 approval spread to a 40/56 one.

Voters split evenly in February at 48% on the question of recalling Walker but now the needle has moved towards bare majority support for removing him early from office. 50% say they would support a recall to 47% who are opposed. That Walker's disapproval is 54% but the support for recall is only 50% shows there are still some voters who dislike him but wouldn't go so far as to support removing him from office, but there aren't many.

Although voters are pretty evenly divided on whether they would support a recall there's less doubt about who they would vote for if there actually was a recall election. They say they would pick Feingold over Walker by a 52-42 margin and Barrett over him by a 50-43 spread. In both of those match ups Democrats are more committed to replacing Walker than Republicans are to keeping him, and independents go on the side of swapping him out for Feingold or Barrett as well.

It's impossible to say whether Democrats will be able to sustain this strong anti-Walker sentiment all the way through the time a recall election would actually be held. But it bodes well for them that as Wisconsin has left the headlines, at least nationally, Walker's numbers have just continued to get worse at home. And they have two potential replacements in Feingold (51/38 favorability) and Barrett (41/34) who are pretty well known and decently well liked on a statewide basis.

The way these numbers are shaking out in Wisconsin reflects what we're seeing a lot of places. Independents are moving back toward the Democrats after being strongly supportive of Republicans last year. And Democrats are more unified than Republicans in many places right now, a contrast to last year where a decent number of Democratic voters supported Republicans with almost voters coming back in the other direction.

And this week the recall against Scott was launched. The Wisconsin Democratic Party posted the comprehensive background information on Scott Walker’s record that has made this recall effort so popular across the state:

• Deception
• Corruption
• Cronyism
• Power Grabs
• Incompetence
• Jobs Failures
• Hypocrisy
• Women's Issues
• Education
• Health Care
• Ag/Environment

Walker is an integral part of the Koch Empire assault on the institutions of American democracy. Remember, Walker was in his Capitol office when he asked "David Koch" to drop ads supporting his union busting. So not only is it illegal coordination, he did it with state resources. The account of his corrupt practices examines part of that sleaziness and, that alone is more than enough reason to remove Walker from office. Remember the phone call?

Amidst growing protests in the days following the introduction of his union-busting budget repair bill, Scott Walker's administration limited entrance to the Capitol and shut down the Legislative hotline, denying thousands of citizens easy, convenient and effective ways to communicate with their elected officials.

At the same time that Scott Walker and his Republican cronies were ignoring the people of Wisconsin, Walker found the time to take a phone call from whom he thought was David Koch, a wealthy out-of-state financier of conservative causes who made contributions to Walker's gubernatorial campaign totaling $43,000. In 2010, David Koch also gave a $1 million contribution to the Republican Governors Association, which spent $3.4 million on television ads in support of Walker's campaign.

Some of the revelations of Walker's call with the phony Koch brother, on state time and using state resources, are as follows:

• That he had consulted with staff members, including Cabinet officials, to consider "planting" troublemakers to incite violence in the peaceful crowds, deciding not to only because as "that would scare the public into thinking that maybe the governor has to settle to avoid all of these problems." This coordinated activity constitutes a conspiracy to recklessly endanger public safety.

• That he had the Attorney General's office "looking into" strategies to force the Democratic senators to return from Illinois, where they fled to deny a quorum and prevent the passage of Walker's bill. This constitutes a misuse of the independently elected office of the Attorney General for primarily political motivations.

• That he would send out 5,000-6,000 layoff notices to public sector employees in an attempt to "ratchet up" pressure on the Democratic Senators. This use of threat against, and intimidation of, public sector employees for political purposes constitutes an abuse of power.

• Walker requested that "Koch" run ads in Republican swing districts, which constitutes illegal third party coordination.

This is a good new ad from the Wisconsin Democratic Party:



So far the organizers of the Walker recall have gotten over 50,000 signatures-- in just the first 48 hours, a nice start towards the 540,000 needed by January 17. One of the sources of so much of the inspirational organizing energy for the movement in Wisconsin comes from state Senator Chris Larson. As always, he's very optimistic. "The energy is growing throughout Wisconsin as people look to take our state back," he told me late last night. "Walker may have the ability to raise unlimited amounts of money to run misleading ads but he doesn't have the people. He can't fight the fact that the more people know about who Scott Walker really is, the more they want to recall him. There is no greater organizer to recall Scott Walker from office than Scott Walker and his regressive policies."

Wisconsin Recall Voting Starts Tuesday With Fake Primaries

The first phase of voting in the Wisconsin recalls comes Tuesday... yes, this Tuesday, July 12. These will be the primaries the GOP forced by running fake candidates. A good example is in the Green Bay area where Democrat Nancy Nusbaum should be facing off against right-wing Republican incumbent Robert Cowles of Allouez. Instead the GOP has managed to insert former state Assemblyman Otto Junkermann, a Republican, onto the Democratic primary ballot. If Junkermann wins the primary, he admits he'll drop out of the race and give Cowles a free ride. The GOP did this in all six districts where Democrats are trying to replace Walker stooges. The other Republicans running in Democratic primaries are Gladys Huber opposing Sandy Pasch, Issax Weix opposing Shelly Moore, Rol Church opposing Fred Clarke, John Buckstaff, opposing Jessica King and James Smith opposing Jennifer Shilling.

The following week, July 19, voters in three districts held by Democratic senators will vote, one general and two primaries. On August 9 the general elections in the first six races, where Democrats are challenging Republicans, will be held and a week later, August 16, the remaining 2 general elections take place. It's a mess that few voters understand-- which is exactly what the GOP was counting on when they did everything in their power to make it a mess.

In all, there are 6 Republican tools of Scott Walker with enough petition signatures to be recalled and there are also three Democrats with the requisite number of signatures. Neither of the two most hated politicians in Wisconsin are on the ballot, not Governor Scott Walker nor Congressman Paul Ryan. But, as you can see from these brand new videos from Sandy Pasch's campaign (the one up top and this one below), the Walker/Ryan essence is exactly what these elections are all about. Sen. Alberta Darling is an especially vehement supporter of both Walker and Ryan.



August 9 is d-day, though-- the day many Wisconsin voters will decide if their state is going to continue down a fascistic path or turn around and embrace democracy again. Blue America has a page dedicated to that day and our six progressive candidates will need all the help they can get between now and... 30 days from now. Even a $5 or $10 contribution, aggregated with lots of other $5 and $10 contributions, could make the difference. And then we'll deal with Scott Walker and with Paul Ryan after that, Walker with a January recall effort and Ryan when we replace him in November 2012 with Rob Zerban.



UPDATE: More GOP Dirty Tricks

Greg Sargent also covered the Wisconsin recalls today. In his Washington Post column he pointed out that "allies of Wisconsin Republicans are growing so desperate that they’re resorting to sleazy dirty tricks in their last-ditch bid to help the GOP hang on to the state senate." He also pointed out that Republicans are allowed to vote in Democratic primaries and are expected to turn out on Tuesday and vote for the fake candidates.

Allies of one of the top GOP targets in the recalls, state senator Randy Hopper, are circulating flyers in his district trying to get out the vote for the fake Dem in the Democratic primary against his Dem opponent.

You can view the flyer, which was found and passed along by We Are Wisconsin, right here. It urges voters to go out to the polls to vote for one John Buckstaff against the real Democrat, Oshkosh deputy mayor Jessica King, a strong candidate against the vulnerable Hopper.

The flyer is the work of a group that calls itself “Patriot Advisors,” which is registered as an opponent of the real Dem, Jessica King, and an ally of the fake Dem candidate, John Buckstaff, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board tells me.

Buckstaff, even though he’s running in a Dem primary, is an 81 year old Republican and donor to ... GOP state senator Randy Hopper.

And here’s the real rub-- the flyer is geared towards getting Republican voters to go out and vote in the Dem primary. It does this by claiming that real Dem Jessica King is a union stooge and that Buckstaff will “roll up his sleeves and work with Governor Walker to eliminate special privileges for government unions.” This, in a Dem primary!

For Wisconsin GOP allies, this takes tampering in Dem primaries to a whole new level.

What's the difference between "Republican allies" and Republican scumbaggers? I'm guessing it's just something the Post's lawyers insist on.

As crunch time approaches, don't forget the unfinished business in Wisconsin

No, there's nothing to click here. But if you go to DFA and PCCC's "Call Out the Vote" webpage, you can follow all the above steps. And of course you can contribute to the individual candidates on Blue America's Beyond Recalls page.

Probably a lot of you got this e-mail from Kaili Lambe, political campaign manager
 of Democracy for America (DFA), which has teamed with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) to support the Democratic challengers in the upcoming recall elections for the Wisconsin state senators who have enabled Wisconsin's ultra-right tsar, er, governor, Scott Walker, to turn the state into the private preserve of plutocratic right-wing benefactors like the Koch brothers. If you haven't read it, I think you should, and if you have, and haven't taken action yet, then let this serve as a reminder. -- Ken

When Scott Walker launched his attack on working families in February, something incredible happened -- people from all over Wisconsin descended on Madison to stand up for their communities. Inspired by their energy, I watched what was happening in Wisconsin and wished I could be there. Did you feel the same way?

Now with several recall elections later this summer, we have the opportunity to show Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans what happens when they attack working families -- we fight back and win.

Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee are launching our Call Out the Vote program this Thursday so that progressives all over the country can talk to Wisconsin voters about the importance of these elections. Will you join me in making calls from your home for two hours this Thursday?

Yesterday, news broke that one of the Republicans challenging a Democratic incumbent failed to collect enough valid signatures to get on the ballot. We have the momentum, but we need to make sure voters know about the election.

Wisconsin was the first of many states to take up anti-worker legislation, but it's not the only one. That's why it's vital we win right now. Because once we stop them in Wisconsin, we'll stop them in Ohio, Michigan, and across the nation.

If we turn out the vote in these recall elections, we will win -- can you help by signing up for a two hour phone shift?

Thanks for everything you do.

Kaili Lambe, Political Campaign Manager

Democracy for America

Yes, I can call this Thursday!
Yes, I can call this Sunday!

I can't make calls this week, but I can chip in $5 to recall the WI Republicans.

AND DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT BLUE
AMERICA'S "BEYOND RECALLS" PAGE . . .

. . . to learn more about the Democratic candidates seeking to replace the Wisconsin Senate Republican sludge, and while you're there you can think about contributing to their campaigns.

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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.

Blue America Welcomes Wisconsin Heroes Sandy Pasch And Chris Larson

You'd have to be living under a rock not to know there's a battle in Wisconsin that's crucial for the whole progressive movement and for the future of our country. That's why Blue America started a new Wisconsin Recall page and it's why we've invited state Senator Chris Larson and state Senate candidate Sandy Pasch onto Crooks and Liars for a live chat today (2pm, CT, noon, PT).

As you no doubt recall, earlier this year the newly elected extreme Republican governor of the state, Scott Walker, pushed through a radical attack on basic labor rights. His plan to strip workers of the right to bargain collectively for protections against unfair treatment and unsafe worker conditions was one of the greatest assaults on working families in the last half century. And now he's pushing a radical, destructive agenda that guts priorities like education, health care and help for seniors while giving hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to huge corporations. He couldn't have done it with an equally extremist state legislature, which has rubber stamped every single point on his destructive agenda.

The recall elections next month matter far beyond the borders of Wisconsin. The Walker agenda is being duplicated in state after state by the extreme Republicans who swept into power in last November’s elections. This fight for rights and the basic values we all hold dear will reverberate across the nation, impacting elections in every region of the country. With the help of Blue America's most trusted friend in Wisconsin, Sen. Chris Larson, we looked at all progressives running to replace the six Walkerites and we invited Assemblywoman Sandy Pasch to talk with us today about the elections. She and Chris are both open to answering questions about the campaign and about Wisconsin politics.

Sandy's running in the 8th Senate district. Over the course of a few months, more than 30,000 residents signed petitions to recall Walker-ally and friend of special interest, State Senator Alberta Darling. Darling is a 19- year Republican incumbent who has embraced the extreme conservative agenda. From slashing money for women’s health care, to raising taxes on seniors and the working poor while giving tax breaks to big corporations, to gutting money for Wisconsin schools, to making it easier to carry a concealed gun into days cares, malls and bars, Darling is a prime symbol of why we need to win these recall elections. Formerly a kind of mainstream conservative she's devolved into a career politician who puts the extreme, divisive agenda of the party bosses and special interests ahead of her constituents.

Remember, Democrats need just three net victories to take control of the state Senate and create a firewall against the reckless Walker agenda. Winning Darling’s seat will be a critical part of that equation. She's vulnerable. Polling shows she can be beaten, and even her Republican allies in the Senate have said to the press she is in trouble.

Sandy's a dedicated progressive and has over 30 years of experience as a clinical nurse and educator. She is committed to stopping Walker’s assault on Wisconsin’s working families. Darling won her last election by only 1,007 votes and next month Sandy is the right candidate to fix that mistake.

Winning these recalls will not just help protect Wisconsin-- it will send a signal to the entire country that we will stand up to extreme, divisive agendas that hurt our values and threaten the priorities we know are so important. Help her campaign now, and this summer Wisconsin will be the first step in our national efforts to stand for the ideals under threat by the most extreme right wing special interests facing our country since the 1940's. Please don't forget to make your way over to the live forum in the Crooks and Liars comments section at 2pm (Wisconsin time) today.

Wisconsin's Neo-Fascist Governor, Scott Walker, Warns GOP Faithful That The Recall Elections Will Be A Referendum On His Agenda

This past weekend's Wisconsin Republican Party convention in the Dells was a real mess-- especially for Tommy Thompson's apparently stillborn Senate campaign-- but the state's extremely controversial governor used the occasion to warn his followers that recall elections are a threat to all he's attempting to achieve in the state. Having disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters with a draconian voter suppression bill (see video above), Walker feels he can stop Democratic momentum-- and democracy itself-- through the recalls this summer, after failing to derail them. (Anti-working family Senators Dan Kapanke, Randy Hopper, and Luther Olsen will have to face the voters July 12, two days before Bastille Day. Next up: Robert Cowles, Sheila Harsdorf and Alberta Darling.)

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican leaders urged party members at their annual convention Saturday to take seriously the threat of losing control of the state Senate through recall elections.

Six Republicans and three Democrats are targeted for recalls starting as early as July 12. Democrats need to pick up three seats to take control of the Senate from Republicans. If that happened, the Republican agenda would come to a grinding halt in the Statehouse, where Democrats currently are unable to stop Walker's proposals from passing.

Walker, speaking to about 1,000 Republicans at a Wisconsin Dells resort, said the only thing that could stop the GOP's momentum in the state are the recall elections.

"For the next two months, you shouldn't think about any United States Senate seat, you should think about protecting six brave senators and picking up three others," Walker said.

All nine of the senators were targeted for recalls because of positions they took earlier this year on Walker's proposal taking away most collective bargaining rights from public workers. The Republicans voted for it, while the Democrats fled to Illinois for three weeks in an ultimately vain attempt to stop it from passing.

The law is tied up in the courts and has not taken effect yet.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said he thinks Republicans will actually pick up a seat through the recalls, but he also extolled the party faithful to not take them lightly. He said the recalls have made the state Senate the bulls-eye of a national political battle.

And that voter suppression bill... Scott Walker boasts that he was the author of it-- 10 years ago. Earlier in the month, the conservative Economist reported on Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan's roadmap to recession. It's the twin faces of Ryan and Walker that will be on the minds of the state's voters when they cast their ballots in the recall elections. The Economist look at Ryan's budget plan-- what he's called his "cause"-- starts by them derisively pointing out that it's backed up by nothing but "a short, lazy piece of analysis by a Fed chairman who's most famous previous involvement in the regulatory system was his failure to rein in a dangerous explosion in irresponsible mortgage lending." That would be fellow Ayn Rand devotee Alan Greenspan.

Ryan then proceeded to lay out his four pillars for a strong recovery. First up were spending cuts. Government spending is generating uncertainty among investors, as are increases in the debt, he argued, and this problem must be tackled immediately. And indeed, Republicans have pushed for cuts to discretionary spending in the current fiscal year, and larger ones still in 2012. Pillar number two is regulatory reform. Big companies and banks are being choked by new regulations, many of which were put in places by new pieces of legislation some of which contained an alarming number of pages. The EPA wants to regulate carbon emissions. This all must be stopped. Regulations must be rolled back.

A third pillar is tax reform. Not a bad idea, that, but Mr Ryan added that any tax reform must include a reduction in rates. Tax increases are entirely off the table; Mr Ryan was clear about that. Not because tax increases don't pay for themselves—he acknowledged that eliminating the Bush tax cuts would raise revenue levels. But Mr Ryan seemed to suggest that current tax rates make American businesses uncompetitive, and that because not all of the fiscal gap could be closed with tax hikes, none of it should be. A sweeping tax reform is therefore the order of the day.

And then finally, Mr Ryan said, America needs sound money. He told stories of traveling around Wisconsin and being handed pieces of currency from Weimar Germany and Zimbabwe, he remarked on how nothing was more insidious than inflation, and he declared that the Fed was making a critical mistake by keeping monetary policy loose.

I was struck hearing all this, explained in this way. Adopting these policies would be nothing short of disastrous.

The spending cuts Republicans seek for this year and next would not doom the American economy to disaster, but they would place a meaningful drag on a recovery that continues to chug along at or just under trend growth, and that's risky. The literature suggesting that austerity can be expansionary has faced a great deal of criticism, and that literature itself suggests that expansionary austerity is most likely when interest rates are high-- which they aren't-- and when the currency is allowed to depreciate considerably-- which Mr Ryan opposes. Short-term spending cuts are unambiguously contractionary, and Mr Ryan wants them in spades.

I could get behind a sweeping regulatory and tax reform, provided it was done well, with an eye toward improving efficiency rather than simply trimming things back for trimming's sake. It seems clear that that's not what Mr Ryan is after. All the same, sweeping reforms seem like an odd short-term prescription from a guy who says that uncertainty is constraining recovery. Another attendee asked Mr Ryan about this seeming tension, and his response was essentially that a sweeping reform won't happen because Democrats still hold the Senate and the presidency. In other words, if Republicans had their druthers, they'd be free to enact a potentially destabilising-- according to Mr Ryan's view of the economic situation-- set of reforms. Only Democratic reluctance is sparing the economy this horror.

...Ryan's views are at odds with economic history and at odds with prevailing views of economic policy. They're untethered from economic reality. And no matter how charmingly he delivers them-- and he is an engaging, funny speaker-- they're a path to disaster. Ryanomics is a recipe for the return of recession.

This morning Paul Krugman brought back his classic description of Ryan from August, 2010: The Flimflam Man. Back then he was mortified that Beltway pundits had bought the Wall Street spin that Ryan was "intellectually audacious" and pointed out that it's just "the audacity of dopes" and that he wasn't offering food for thought but "serving up the leftovers from the 1990s, drenched in flimflam sauce." Today it's Flimflam Part II. Ryan's plan, he asserts, is "a self-serving piece of junk. It doesn’t add up-- in fact, it would probably make the deficit bigger not smaller. And far from representing some kind of sacrifice of political interests in the service of the greater good, it’s a right-wing wish-list on steroids: sharp tax cuts for corporations and the rich, savage cuts in aid to the poor, and a gratuitous privatization of Medicare. And again, it’s technically incompetent along the way. ... Ryan and his colleagues expected to float through on a cloud of pundit love, which would allow them to bypass the public’s fundamental dislike of everything they were proposing."

Exactly what Ryan's Democratic challenger, Kenosha County Supervisor Rob Zerban, was saying after Ryan's serial lies on Meet the Press Sunday. "Paul Ryan tried to promote his radical budget plan on Meet the Press yesterday by falsely claiming that the alternative would lead to rationed care when the truth is the exact opposite. By forcing seniors into private healthcare with a voucher of diminishing value as their only assistance, many would forgo treatments and new technologies because the costs would be out of their reach. Paul Ryan knows that by gutting our current Medicare plan, seniors will face drastically higher out-of-pocket costs. This helps big insurance companies, not Wisconsin's seniors. What the taxpayers of southeastern Wisconsin need is a plan that would shore up our existing Medicare system without gutting it and forcing our seniors to figure it out on their own." Maybe Zerban was being too polite to mention that Big Insurance has showered far more cash on Ryan ($713,003) than on any other Wisconsin politician in history.

Please consider helping Rob Stop Paul Ryan with even a $5 or $10 contribution to his campaign.

Good news from Wisconsin -- but the battle is still just beginning

by Ken

I don't know about you, but these days I'm finding most of the political-related news so grim that when my clock radio turns on in the morning, tuned to NPR's Morning Edition and timed to an on-the-hour news summary, my first waking impulse is to shut the damned thing off. Here, however, is some good news.

Probably most of you also received this e-mail today from Jim Dean of Democracy for America. But the message is too important to ignore. So here it is again if you've already seen it, and if you haven't, well, here it is. Howie reported earlier today that the recall movement has spread to Michigan. There's been an important development in the first state using the recall device to try to restore political sanity. Take it away, Jim.

Today, we made history in Wisconsin.

WI Democrats -- supported by over 2,600 DFA volunteers on the ground -- submitted over 150% of the signatures needed to demand the recall election of the 5th Republican State Senator: Alberta Darling.

This is unprecedented. In the history of Wisconsin there have been only 4 recall elections ever. Now, in just the last two months, we've legally required 5.

Republicans from Madison to Washington D.C. are watching every single step of this fight and we're not going to let up until we win. With signature gathering continuing for the 3 Republicans left who are eligible for recall, it's vital we keep covering TV with our hard-hitting real people ad. If we hit $600,000 by Friday night, we'll be able to stay on the air in target districts through the end of next week. Please contribute now to make it happen.


Our TV ad, which we created with our friends at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, features life-long Republican voter Mike Crump.

"As a Republican my entire life I'm appalled at what Scott Walker and the Republicans did. This hurts my family. It's about my kids in school."

Mike is one of the many reasons MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Cenk Uygur have all praised our Wisconsin ads. It's also why local activists in Wisconsin have asked us to keep it on TV.

Please watch the ad and contribute now.

Thanks to the support we've had so far from DFA members nationwide, we're closer than ever to flipping the WI Senate and stopping Governor Walker's anti-families agenda.

Working together with our members on the ground, we won't stop until we win. Thank you for everything you do.

-Jim

Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America

I should note that I've reduced Jim's fund-raising links to just the one, on the theory that DownWithTyranny readers don't need quite that hammering to know whether or not this is something you want to participate in. Nor do DWT readers need any further priming on the importance of the Wisconsin Senate recall effort, all the more so in the wake of that, er, strange Supreme Court election that was just rigged held, encouraging the state's Stalinist governor, Scott Walker that nothing stands between him and his goal of turning Wisconsin into a subsidiary of Koch Industries.


UPDATE FROM WISCONSIN:

REPUBLICANS WILL BE REPUBLICANS!

Thanks to commenter Southern Beale for calling my attention to Amanda Terkel's HuffPost post, "Wisconsin Recall Fight Heats Up As Democrats Complain Of 'Shots For Signatures' Deals," with a report that Republicans seeking to recall Democratic senators who left the state to deprive the rubber-stamp Senate Republicans of a quorum are using a novel technique: offering shots to petition signers, who may or may not know what it is they're being liquored up to sign. (A spokesman for the state's Government Accountability Board, Reid Magney, said, "Our attorneys have been unable to find anything in state law that would prohibit offering drinks or anything for signing a petition," but said they "strongly encourage people not to do so because it taints the process."

The Wisconsin Democratic Party is planning to file a complaint to the state Government Accountability Board alleging that a Republican signature-gatherer offered alcoholic beverages to a group of women to get them to sign a recall petition against a Democratic state senator.

Although that's not illegal in Wisconsin, it is strongly discouraged and, Democrats argue, evidence that Republicans don't really have enough grassroots support for their recall campaigns.

Republicans have until early next week to file recall petitions against eight Democratic state senators, more than half of the caucus that left the state in February to protest and delay the GOP's budget repair bill, which included a provision stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights. So far, the state Republican Party has not filed any recall petitions, although they are reportedly planning to file two -- against state Sens. Dave Hansen and Jim Holperin -- on Thursday.

A bartender at John's Main Event in Burlington was audio-recorded offering shots for signatures, and an update passes on a screen shot supplied by a HuffPost reader in Burlington of Scott the bartender's Facebook page, where he makes fun of protesters who challenged his petition-gathering.


REMINDER: YOU ONLY HAVE A DAY LEFT TO PREPARE
FOR THE GREAT ALL-NIGHT ROYAL WEDDING VIGIL

Yes, Frankie Heck's got Royal Wedding fever,
and she's got it bad.

"We won the Civil War, so we don't have to care."

-- eldest Heck offspring Axl, responding to his mother's frenzied anticipation of the Royal Wedding

I was going to write about this tonight, with reference to last night's episode of The Middle, in which we saw Frankie experiencing the great event as one of just a tad larger than life-or-death importance. The nice thing is that even if you haven't finished your preparations yet, you still have a fair amount of time when you get home from work tomorrow -- especially if you live in one of the western time zones (and especially if you have access to 24-hour shopping).

So we'll put off to tomorrow Frankie's response to Mike's bewildering lack of enthusiasm: "Look, I barely cared about our wedding. Tell me why this is such a big deal. What'd this girl ever do?"

UPDATE: YOU MAY THINK I'VE JUMPED THE DATE . . .

. . . and you could be right, This may possibly reflect just how much attention I've been paying. Anyway, I'll still have my more or less final words on the subject this Friday night -- along with why I think we should have a monarchy, plus how I think we could swing it.

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What Are You Doing Monday?

You made it to April. It's been tumultuous but the new Gallup poll that came out yesterday shows that most Americans are not enthralled with what the sociopathic breed of new Republican governors-- Snyder (MI), LePage (ME), Scott (FL), Walker (WI), Christie (NJ), Corbett (PA) and Kasich (OH)-- have been trying to do to undercut ordinary working families in their states. Less than 40% of Americans-- and only 33% of women-- support their bloodthirsty jihads against unions. and Monday there will be a national day of action to support the basic rights we all have to come together and bargain collectively with the high and mighty would could crush us all individually. Hundreds of thousands of working people are coming together on April 4 to honor the anniversary of Dr. King’s death in Memphis, where he was assassinated while supporting striking sanitation workers, and to commemorate his lifelong commitment to civil and labor rights. So far there are close to 900 events currently listed on the We Are One website.

People are energized after seeing what ideologues-- not just the crazies on the extreme right in Washington like Paul Broun, Michele Bachmann and Steve King-- in their own states are trying to do. The We Are One activities Monday offer a huge range of events-- over 150 teach-ins, hundreds of worksite mobilizations, community forums, vigils, visibility in towns-- whatever people wanted to do to best show their solidarity. There are events in all 50 states, and folks in Paris, Mongolia, and Afghanistan have reached out to add their events as well! People are galvanized-- something that's reflected in the success the Wisconsin grassroots is having in the arduous task of gathering recall signatures for Walker's Republican senators-- while the Koch-funded/Mormon backed GOP efforts have flopped. Yesterday Wisconsin reached the requisite number of signatures for the first of their targets Dan Kapanke of La Crosse.

Recall organizer Pat Scheller said volunteers have gathered more than the 15,588 signatures needed and that they plan to take them to Madison after a noon rally today at La Crosse City Hall.

It is expected to be the first completed of 19 active recall efforts registered between Feb. 24 and March 2 against 16 senators.

Kapanke did not return messages Thursday, but has said the recall is “part of the process.”

Wisconsin has been in the headlines. And governors as bad as Walker in Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Arizona, etc have kept those states in the national headlines as well. But as off the rails New Hampshire went last November-- elected two right-wing congressmen and a corporate shill for a senator AND huge GOP majorities in the state legislature, a moderate governor, John Lynch (D) has been able to tamp down the worst mischief these nihilists have been up to. Remember, New Hampshire legislators were quick off the mark to try to take the national spotlight of right-wing insanity away from Kasich, Brewer, Walker, et al.

There are currently 19 Republicans and only 5 Democrats in the state Senate while the Republicans hold a 298-104 advantage over the Democrats in the lower house. And Republicans have moved quickly to put New Hampshire back on a right-wing, pre-2006 course. They are working towards overturning marriage equality, reinstating the death penalty, cutting back on women's choice, and putting up barriers to union organizing. [T]he Boston Globe reported that the state legislature is moving towards taking away students' right to vote.

Yesterday our old pal in Concord, Colin Van Ostern, published an OpEd in several of the state's leading newspapers decrying the damage the teabag-crazed Republicans are doing to business in New Hampshire.

Wake up, New Hampshire business leaders. Our state's technology-- and manufacturing-- based economy was strong enough to weather the national recession. But can it really withstand the foolhardiness of the New Hampshire Legislature?

After Gov. John Lynch proposed a downright conservative budget that would have made yesterday's Republicans let out a victory cheer, today's new partisans couldn't help themselves. Community technical colleges that fuel our state's labor force? Millions more in cuts. Lynch's proposal to boost the successful research and development tax credit? Gone.

As if to prove their zeal is unrelated to any genuine interest in balanced budgets, the House at the very same time is boosting spending on its own political staff by $1.4 million and repealing $16 million in cigarette tax revenue. Is this really the best way to strengthen our state's economy? Cut technical education and R&D so that we can fund more political staffers and make a pack of cigarettes a dime cheaper?

In the state budget debate thus far, outside light has rightly been shined on the dangerous cuts to our social safety net, and much heat has been generated by the undemocratic efforts to strip public workers of collective bargaining rights. But away from the light and heat of those debates, the Legislature's decision-making reveals a naive disregard for our state's economic climate - which should be their top priority.

Earlier this month, the state Business and Industry Association and New Hampshire High Technology Council released an investigation by the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies into our state's critical economic sector: smart manufacturing and high-tech companies. The 47-page report analyzes the competitive advantages, challenges and opportunities facing the SMHT industries, which contribute one in every five payroll dollars in the state.

The business report concludes with four policy recommendations, including three that are specifically ignored - or worse, undermined-- by the New Hampshire House budget. To preserve our economic advantage, lawmakers should be "[1] encouraging workforce development and education, [2] investing in infrastructure, and [3] implementing tax policies that promote manufacturing and high tech growth."

In fact, the report's conclusions specifically cite the success of research and development tax credits and point to the need for robust technical education to maintain a well-educated workforce that will fuel continued economic growth. In other words, New Hampshire's employers are asking state lawmakers point-blank not to make the state economy a casualty of their anti-government zeal.

These are not partisan recommendations. If anything, the business community is a traditionally Republican-leaning force in politics. But today's New Hampshire Legislature is systematically ignoring their good advice. Even when no government spending is involved, the Legislature is on an anti-government crusade-- such as their work to lower the minimum dropout age.

When the state increased the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 a few years ago, the high school dropout rate plunged. The number of students leaving high school early was roughly cut in half. It didn't cost tax dollars-- it was just smart policy. And now, given the choice between more students graduating from high school or happy Free Staters who simply oppose any government regulations at all, the Legislature is choosing the Free Staters.

Like Walter Peterson and Jeanne Shaheen before him, John Lynch knows that a governor's job is to put competency first and ideology second. That's why he is so popular (and, by the way, it is why he should not rule out running for re-election in 2012). But under Speaker Bill O'Brien, the House of Representatives has adopted the opposite of the Lynch method: It is putting ideology over competency. If the state Senate can't summon up the courage to stand up to the House, it risks losing the future for our state.

And back to Monday, here are just a few of the hundreds of public activities taking place involving AFT members and leaders:

April 4- Rally in Philadelphia at Temple University to protest budget cuts proposed by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett. AFT President Randi Weingarten will speak at the event.

April 4- March and rally in downtown San Francisco. AFT Secretary-Treasurer Antonia Cortese will speak at the rally.

April 6–8- AFT Washington and a large coalition of civil rights groups, immigrant rights groups, labor unions, student groups and faith-based groups will convene three days of action on the Capitol grounds in Olympia, Wash.

April 9- New York State United Teachers will lead a rally to support workers’ rights in Times Square in New York City. AFT President Randi Weingarten will speak at the event.

April 9- Thousands of union members and progressive allies are expected for an all-Illinois rally in downtown Chicago.

The American Federation of Teachers, and most Americans, are pissed off that the wealthy and their pawns in politics and the media are bashing and blaming teachers and other public employees for state and even federal budget problems they did not cause, They're pointing out that the unhinged Republican governors, using their budget crises, are trying to eliminate the voice of educators, nurses, firefighters and other public employees in their workplaces and to recklessly cut education funding and other public services. A particularly egregious example is the move by Rick Scott to slash payments for group homes and other rehabilitation organizations for people with disabilities in the Medicaid waiver program.

AFT affiliates are sponsoring or participating in hundreds of “We are One” events nationwide next week to fight for economic dignity and fairness, so that those who have the least get the most help, and to ensure that the services we deliver are the best they can be. More than 38,000 people also took the pledge on the AFT’s website to make a difference and stand together with the union and its allies by participating in activities to support fairness, economic and educational opportunity, justice, democracy and workers’ voice.

“This is a time for our nation to turn to public employees, instead of turning against them. But we can’t do it all. To govern is to choose-- and some governors across the country are making damaging choices,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said. “These political ideologues have launched an all-out assault on the men and women who teach our children, care for our sick, and keep our neighborhoods clean and safe.”

“This is not just a moment in time but a movement by citizens of all stripes who are standing up and fighting for democracy, fairness, and policies that put the needs of everyday people ahead of politics and profits,” Weingarten said.

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.