Walker Recall Petitions hit 300,000 Sigs . . . Walker Recall Petitioners Harassed in Racine
With the statewide Wisconsin recalls of Governor Scott Walker (R), Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch (R), and our local recall of district 21 Senator Van Wanggaard (R), have come problems. But first, the good news . . . statewide organizers from UnitedWisconsin.com and the Democratic Party (two separate things) have both reported that over 300,000 recall signatures have been gathered in the first twelve days.
As the story from the Racine Journal-Times says:
People have signed the recall petitions at the rate of about 1,040 per hour, according to United Wisconsin. The group says signatures have been collected from people in all 72 counties in Wisconsin, including:
• 10,033 residents from Columbia County.
• 4,713 in Pierce County.
• 3,698 in Oneida County.
• 16,845 in Eau Claire and Chippewa counties.
• 8,540 in Portage County.
Racine County numbers were not available.
Now, note these numbers; Racine County is more populous than any of those other counties. Also, all of those counties are known as Republican-leaning or heavily Republican districts . . . which is bad news for Scott Walker and his backers, for sure.
This may be why recall advocates and petitioners, even in Racine County, are now having trouble with people harassing them, stealing signs, and in one case even driving straight at a crowd of people attempting to gather signatures. (See this story from the Racine Journal-Times for further details.) As Kelly Gallagher said in the recent Journal-Times article:
Kelly Gallaher, the organizer for the local progressive group Community for Change, said when she was with a group of people on Friday near a laundromat by River Run Family Restaurant, 3616 Northwestern Ave., someone sped directly at a group of organizers. People ran out of the way, she said. “It was that close,” Gallaher said.
Also on Saturday, a driver deliberately backed his vehicle toward people collecting signatures outside All Sports Pub, 3458 Rapids Drive, Gallaher said. That same day, Gallaher said someone threw a big glass of soda or some other drink at a man collecting signatures outside the Social Security Office, 4020 Durand Ave.
“It’s concerning,” Gallaher said. “My biggest fear is that someone is going to get hurt.”
And what have the local Republican Party folks done about this? Not a whole lot. While condemning incidents like this (without admitting they actually have happened, mind you), Racine Republican Party Chairman Bill Folk was more concerned about the recall petitioners getting signatures outside local businesses. From the Journal-Times article (the same one that quoted Gallagher):
While Folk has not heard directly about people harassing people collecting recall signatures, he said he has heard complaints about people collecting signatures on property where they shouldn’t be, which concerns him.
“If they are not getting permission from the business owners, it’s exposing the business owners to a political segment they may or may not agree with,” Folk said. “They are putting a business owner in an awkward situation politically.”
Of course, Gallagher pointed out that at the three businesses she knew of where inappropriate and scary things had happened, the recall petitioners did have permission to be there. So this was just another attempt by Folk and his Republican colleagues to divert attention from what’s really going on — and that’s sad.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 
I think that’s great. I think the efforts will bring in at least 600,000 signatures to recall Walker, and Wanggaard is useless. Thanks for the update. I’m working on getting more people to sign the petitions.
likamarie
November 30, 2011 at 4:33 am
You’re welcome, Lika . . . I’m trying to get a few more signatures, too, even though I’ve been way under the weather and haven’t been able to do much of anything that I’d hoped or planned to do, recall-wise, save writing a few blogs here and there. (So I’m glad you enjoyed this one; that means what I’m doing is worthwhile, I hope.)
I agree with you regarding Walker and Wanggaard. Really good op-ed in the Journal-Times yesterday regarding Wanggaard and his lack of care for children — and the guy (can’t remember his name, the former principal?) writing said that we should raise the tax on beer (specifically, he said “beer kegs,” but that’s very similar to what I’ve been proposing for months) to be able to fund essential programs like Medicare, Medicaid (our versions: Badgercare, Seniorcare, etc.) rather than just tossing people out of the programs and/or refusing to fund them properly and then raising fees on people who are barely getting by as it is.
As for Walker, I’ve written so many blogs about why we need him out — why we need a sea change in Madison, considering all three branches are controlled by radical, right-wing Rs — I really can’t say much more about him except I’m glad the recall is going well, I fully do expect we will recall him, and then it’ll be on as to who will run against him to _replace_ him. (Unfortunately, he is not likely to be like Gray Davis in California, who when recalled, did _not_ stand for re-election/retention; instead, he said “the people have spoken” and his Lt. Gov., a very good politician named Cruz Bustamante, ran for the Dems and lost to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then Schwarzenegger mismanaged the state for eight years.)
BTW, do you still need to sign the Kleefisch petition? I have one, if you do . . . (I’ve already signed all three so unfortunately I cannot sign again. ;-))
Barb Caffrey
November 30, 2011 at 5:04 am