Barb Caffrey's Blog

While trying to survive the extremely hot, humid weather here in Southeastern Wisconsin (high today is expected to be near 100), I’ve been looking on with bemusement at the Wisconsin Republican Party’s latest bunch of dirty tricks.

How about this headline?  “Wisconsin Republicans Want Allies to Run as Democratic Protest Candidates in Recall Election Primaries.”  And they’re not even denying that they’re doing it!   Here’s a link — now here’s a quote:

Stephan Thompson, executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said in a statement Monday that Republican state senators face recalls for doing their jobs, unlike Democratic senators who he says deserted their constituents for Illinois.

Thompson said the Republican senators are busy crafting a state budget, which puts them at a disadvantage to challengers to have time to campaign.

“Because of this disadvantage, and the outrageous nature of elected officials facing recall for standing up for a balanced budget, the Republican Party of Wisconsin has advocated that protest candidates run in Democratic primaries to ensure that Republican legislators have ample time to communicate with voters throughout their districts after the state budget is approved,” he said in the statement.

 By doing this, Republicans would force the Democratic challengers to spend money on a primary instead of saving it for the general election. Spoiler candidates could also launch negative attacks on the Democrats while the Republican incumbents stay out of the fray.

 So, the head of the Rs thinks it’s perfectly fine to do this.  Hmm.

Next, here’s the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (aka WisDems) response, from the same article:

The Democratic Party called on Republicans to stop their “Nixonion dirty tricks” and scheduled a news conference Monday afternoon with Democratic Senate Leader Mark Miller.

And now, today’s news from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, where Scott Fitzgerald, the Senate Majority Leader (R-Juneau), admits he was behind this idea all the way:

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald fully endorsed the idea Tuesday of fielding fake Democrats in recall elections against Republicans in an effort to delay the general elections.

“It gives us another month to campaign,” said the Republican from Juneau.

Recall elections for six Republican senators are scheduled for July 12. If there are multiple candidates from the same party in any of those elections, the July 12 election becomes a primary election and a general recall election will be scheduled for Aug. 9.

Now, here’s the “money quote” (or in this case, the “money area”) of this article, which is a follow-up to Daniel Bice’s yesterday MJS article:

Fitzgerald said Republicans would be recruited to run as Democrats — likely in all six races — so that the elections would be pushed back a month. He said he was persuaded by campaign staff that it was a good idea and consulted with state election officials to make sure it was allowed.

And what, pray tell, is Fitzgerald’s motivation for this?  Supposedly, it’s to get back at the Dems because they supposedly ran a “fake R” in the 2010 election against one of the Rs.  Going on:

Fitzgerald said the idea was developed in response to a fake Republican running last year against Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer of Manitowoc. Ziegelbauer was a Democrat who long voted with Republicans; he quit the Democratic Party last year and ran for re-election as an independent.

A fake Republican ran in an attempt to split the vote between him and Ziegelbauer, giving the Democrat a chance to take the seat. The move didn’t work, and Ziegelbauer kept his seat.

Mark Jefferson, the state Republican Party executive director at the time, called that move a “nasty, cynical ploy.”

Of course, the Dems deny this.

Going on, Fitzgerald says that:

“Recalling senators for taking a tough vote is just wrong.”

He also said holding the recall elections were costly for taxpayers. By forcing primaries with fake candidates, those costs will only climb.

So, the recalls against Rs are bad, but the three pending recalls against Dems for doing their jobs by leaving the state to deny a quorum are good?  How is this logical?

Then, Fitzgerald says that “recalls are expensive,” then turns around and says that they should force primaries with silly, stupid “fake Dem” candidates to cause an even greater expense?  How does this possibly make sense, even in an alternate universe?

I’m sorry, Mr. Fitzgerald.  You do not get to “have your cake and eat it, too.”  You can either be for the recalls, as your party might get a few of the Dems out — or you can be against the recalls, as your party will probably lose a number of seats.  But you cannot be both, and you certainly cannot say that “recalls are expensive” while doing your level best to lengthen the process and make it even more expensive, because that does not fly.

This just goes to show you that the Republican Party in Wisconsin cannot be trusted if they’re willing to admit to these types of “dirty tricks” — and no matter how hot and humid it is, there’s no excuse whatsoever for the latest bunch of horrible behavior.

And to Mr. Fitzgerald, personally, I will say only this — I hope every single last Republican who voted for Gov. Walker’s “budget-repair” bill gets recalled as soon as legally permissible (for most, it’s next January).  Including you.