Talk:Scott Walker

6:02pm, May 29, 2012 (CDT)
Moving the Senate recall section here to review, week of 5/28/12:

Recall Launched Against Senators In 2011 and Again In 2012

Following the passage of the Budget Repair Bill, which eliminated collective bargaining rights for most public employees in the state, recall elections were held for 8 Republican senators as well as 3 Democratic Senators. The Democrats won reelection handily, but two Republicans lost their seats, giving Republicans only a one seat majority in the senate.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin announced on October 10, 2011 that it would begin efforts to gather signatures for a petition to recall Scott Walker on November 15th. United Wisconsin already has a list of 200,000 people who have signed their names in favor of recalling Scott Walker, which will provide a convenient database to jump start the effort to gather the necessary 540,000 signatures in 60 days. Several grass roots organizations are expected to be involved in the recall efforts, including Defend Wisconsin, Defending Wisconsin, Autonomous Solidarity Organization and We Are Wisconsin.

On November 15th, the campaign to recall Walker got underway. 540,000 signatures, a number equivalent to 25% of the people who voted in the last statewide election, needs to be collected in 60 days. Conservatives seeking to keep Walker in office have engaged in efforts to thwart the recall. United Wisconsin, a key group that in gathering signatures for the petition, was victim to a cyber-attack of its website on the night the recall began. In addition, conservative groups have revealed plans on Facebook to pose as signature gatherers and distribute false petitions to mislead voters trying to support the recall.

On January 17, 2012 United Wisconsin and its 20,000 volunteers submitted close to 1 million signatures to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board to trigger the recall of the Governor, the Lt. Governor and four state senators will also be subject to recall elections. The 1 million signatures is equivalent to 46% of the number of voters in the last statewide election.

On January 17, 2012, signatures were also submitted to trigger recall elections for incumbent Republican Senators Scott Fitzgerald, Pam Galloway, Terry Moulton, and Van Wanggaard. State Democrats are attempting to swing control of the Senate from Republican to Democrat by gaining one more seat. Pam Galloway then resigned from her seat on March 16, 2012; the recall election for the 29th district is now considered a special election. Republican Representative Jerry Petrowski is running for Galloway's seat against Democratic Representative Donna Seidel. Scott Fitzgerald is running against Lori Compass; Terry Moulton is running against former Democratic Representative Kristin Dexter; Van Wanggaard is running against John Lehman, whom he defeated in 2010.

1:23pm, July 17, 2011 (CDT)
Moving the duplicated protest timeline here to review and edit week of 7/18/11:

Protest Timeline

In addition to hundreds of thousands of people rallying in Madison, Wisconsin's state capitol, to oppose Walker's budget plan, students and teachers around the state conducted walkouts, effectively shutting down entire school systems around the state. Walkouts closed Madison-area schools for days in a row.

Below are the highlights of the on-going protest against Governor Walker and his budget bill:

• February 11, 2011 - Walker introduces his Budget Repair Bill that eliminates most collective bargaining rights for workers.
• February 13, 2011 - The first protests draw small crowds at the capital and in front of Walker's home.
• February 15, 2011 - Around 10,000 people gather in front of the Madison State Capitol and filling the inside of the rotunda.
• February 19, 2011 - The first large Saturday protest sees almost 50,000 people gather around the capitol building.
• February 22, 2011 - Union protests start in other states like Ohio and Michigan to block those state's budgets that also greatly affect workers' rights.
• February 25, 2011 - Assembly Republicans pass Walker's budget bill at 1 a.m. in a hastily-planned committee meeting.
• February 26, 2011 - Protests after the Assembly passing of the bill draw over 70,000 people to the capitol.
• February 28, 2011 - Walker shuts the capitol down and tries to evict the remaining protesters who have been spending the night under the rotunda.
• March 1, 2011 - A judge orders the capitol to be reopened.
• March 9, 2011 - Senate Republicans bypass the 14 absent Democrats who left the state to postpone a vote on the budget, by holding a special conference committee to strip the fiscal aspects of the bill so the anti-union provisions can be voted on. The bill is then passed on the 10th.
• March 11, 2011 - Walker signs the anti-union bill into law.
• March 12, 2011 - Democratic senators return to Madison for a rally that drew over 80,000 people, as well as celebrities like Susan Sarandon.
• March 15, 2011 - State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) lifts the fines against Senate Democrats, and restores their voting rights on committees, after receiving assurances that they would not flee the state again.
• March 18, 2011 - Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issues a temporary restraining order against the newly-passed law, forbidding its implementation and preventing Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing it in the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper — the final, formal step to have a law take effect.
• April 5, 2011 - Jesse Jackson visits a protest on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death. The protest is attended by thousands.
• More protests are planned for the future.

For more information, visit PRWatch's Live Blog.

Rebekah Wilce

3:19 p.m., April 4, 2011 (MDT)
Please fix the following reference to list the author, name of the article cited, title of web page (e.g., "About," "State events," etc.) and date you accessed the page. Please also state a source for the quote (who is saying "University tuition is expected to increase by 5.5. percent...."?:

Governor Walker is proposing $900 million worth of cuts in K-12 school aid over the next two years. This will continue to move the state further from its former commitment to cover two-thirds of the costs of public schools. Higher Education will also be affected. "University tuition is expected to increase by 5.5 percent each year for the UW System, and 20% or more over the biennium for UW Madison."<ref>[http://www.wccf.org/ Wisconsin Council on Children and Families]</ref>

Anne Landman, CMD Editor

---

2:58 p.m., April 4, 2011 (MDT)
Please note the correct formatting for references:

Incorrect:
<ref>[http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/117154428.html Walker's budget cuts would touch most Wisconsinites],"Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. March 1, 2011."</ref>

Correct:
<ref>Jason Stein, Patrick Marley and Lee Bergquist [http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/117154428.html Walker's budget cuts would touch most Wisconsinites], Milwaukee, Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel, April 4, 2011</ref>

• The format for newspapers is <ref>Author's name [URL (space) Title of article], Name of publication, date of publication</ref>

Thank you!
Anne Landman, CMD Editor

---

April 4 , 2011 2:36 P.M. MDT
Parking the following misplaced and unreferenced material that was cut from the "Biography" section of this page:

The anger and activism could also propel legal challenges regarding the way Republicans may have violated open-meetings law and internal procedures to get the bill passed without a quorum (Democratic senators fled to Illinois specifically to prevent passage). But Mayer says that such claims are unlikely to succeed because "there is case law where the state courts have declined to get involved and force a legislature to enforce its own rule." A constitutional challenge on the basis of whether the Republican reclassification of the bill from fiscal to nonfiscal were legal may have a better chance, says Mayer, but "it's not a slam dunk."

Anne Landman

CMD Editor