By: Dan Kaufman
This week, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a non-partisan organization, announced that nearly forty-four million dollars had been spent on the nine Wisconsin State Senate recall elections that concluded last month—offering a glimpse of the spending that might be expected in the general election. The recall effort began in mid-February, days after Governor Scott Walker’s proposed eliminating most collective bargaining rights for public workers. There had previously been only four recalls of state officials in Wisconsin since 1926, when the process first became possible. The recalls cost several million dollars more than the state’s most expensive campaign to date, the 2010 governor’s race that Walker won.
Though the Democrats failed to gain a senate majority, the outcome was decidedly more positive for the party than in other special elections, such as the race for Anthony Weiner’s old congressional seat. Two Republican state senators lost while seven incumbents—three Democrats and four Republicans—held on. What had been a 19-14 Republican majority was reduced to a single vote. Additionally, one of the senate Republicans who avoided a recall, Dale Schultz, had voted against the collective-bargaining bill, which he described at the time as a “classic overreach.”
But the recalls provided plenty of evidence of how conservative many of the state’s Republican elected officials have become. In 1990, Alberta Darling was elected to the state assembly and currently represents parts of Milwaukee and some of its wealthiest suburbs in the state senate. She served on the board of the Wisconsin chapter of Planned Parenthood from 1986 to 1995. This year, Darling voted to defund the organization. For her recall election, Darling received more than $1.4 million dollars in direct contributions, nearly twice as much as her opponent. She also received indirect assistance from outside groups, including Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party organization founded by David Koch. (See Jane Mayer’s piece on Koch brothers’ political funding activities.) In March, the group sent out a laudatory press release praising Darling for signing its “No Climate Tax Pledge,” a promise to oppose any legislation to combat climate change that includes a net increase in revenue. Darling held her seat.
In the lead-up to the recalls, Governor Walker and the legislature rushed through a series of contentious bills. In July, Walker signed a new “conceal and carry” law that allows for concealed guns in most public places, including the State Capitol. Even more divisive was a law aimed at combating voter fraud, which requires voters to show a photo I.D. at the polls and lengthens residency requirements. A 2005 study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found that hundreds of thousands of the state’s citizens do not have a driver’s license, including fifty-five per cent percent of African-American men and fifty-nine per cent of Latino women. Two weeks ago, the Madison-based Capitol Times published a confidential memo from a senior Department of Motor Vehicles official ordering DMV employees to refrain from volunteering to members of the public that they could get a basic photo I.D. without having to pay. (The free I.D.s are required by law to avoid the constitutional prohibition against poll taxes.)
During his primary against Hillary Clinton, President Obama visited Madison and drew an exuberant crowd that numbered in the tens of thousands. He visited Madison again in September of last year, trying to drum up support for Democrats like Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett, who would lose to Scott Walker several weeks later. This time, the reception was somewhat cooler. Indeed, the Democratic gains in the recall elections were achieved, if anything, in spite of him.
But the recalls provided plenty of evidence of how conservative many of the state’s Republican elected officials have become. In 1990, Alberta Darling was elected to the state assembly and currently represents parts of Milwaukee and some of its wealthiest suburbs in the state senate. She served on the board of the Wisconsin chapter of Planned Parenthood from 1986 to 1995. This year, Darling voted to defund the organization. For her recall election, Darling received more than $1.4 million dollars in direct contributions, nearly twice as much as her opponent. She also received indirect assistance from outside groups, including Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party organization founded by David Koch. (See Jane Mayer’s piece on Koch brothers’ political funding activities.) In March, the group sent out a laudatory press release praising Darling for signing its “No Climate Tax Pledge,” a promise to oppose any legislation to combat climate change that includes a net increase in revenue. Darling held her seat.
In the lead-up to the recalls, Governor Walker and the legislature rushed through a series of contentious bills. In July, Walker signed a new “conceal and carry” law that allows for concealed guns in most public places, including the State Capitol. Even more divisive was a law aimed at combating voter fraud, which requires voters to show a photo I.D. at the polls and lengthens residency requirements. A 2005 study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found that hundreds of thousands of the state’s citizens do not have a driver’s license, including fifty-five per cent percent of African-American men and fifty-nine per cent of Latino women. Two weeks ago, the Madison-based Capitol Times published a confidential memo from a senior Department of Motor Vehicles official ordering DMV employees to refrain from volunteering to members of the public that they could get a basic photo I.D. without having to pay. (The free I.D.s are required by law to avoid the constitutional prohibition against poll taxes.)
During his primary against Hillary Clinton, President Obama visited Madison and drew an exuberant crowd that numbered in the tens of thousands. He visited Madison again in September of last year, trying to drum up support for Democrats like Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett, who would lose to Scott Walker several weeks later. This time, the reception was somewhat cooler. Indeed, the Democratic gains in the recall elections were achieved, if anything, in spite of him.
No comments:
Post a Comment