Democrats can take a great deal of pride in the results of this summer’s Wisconsin recall elections. All three threatened Democratic state legislators turned back Republican recall efforts while Democrats unseated two Republican senators.
Predictably, Illinois’ Republican U.S. Senator Mark Kirk tried to spin this Democratic triumph as a defeat, commenting at an August 10 press conference, “The organized far left was dealt a critical blow.” (Highland Park News, Aug. 19, 2011, p. 17). Kirk thereby managed to squeeze two falsehoods into a simple nine-word sentence. Driven not by the “far left” but by popular outrage at the radical far-right agenda of Governor Scott Walker, the recall elections succeeded in stopping the Walker juggernaut by reducing the Republican margin in the state senate to a single seat.
In fact, although Kirk and his party would pretend otherwise, the successful recall of two Republican state legislators in Wisconsin was a monumental accomplishment. Because Wisconsin law does not allow an officeholder to be recalled until he has served at least one year, none of the Republicans swept into office in 2010, including Walker himself, was subject to recall. Rather, all six Republicans defending their seats were elected in 2008, the year that Wisconsin voters overwhelmingly favored Democrats statewide, awarding the Obama/Biden ticket more than 56 percent of their votes. Tenth Dems can take particular pride in our northern neighbors’ accomplishment, as scores of volunteers gave over their weekends to telephone calls and door-to-door canvassing on behalf of Wisconsin Democrats.
–Barbara Altman, Tenth Dems