"Wisconsin Senate Recall Election Results Tuesday, August 9, 2011"

"Wisconsin Senate Recall Election Results Tuesday, August 9, 2011"

WisconsinRecalls

If you are interested in finding the results of the Wisconsin recall election, you can find them available here. Very few votes have been counted as of 9:39 EDT PM. My guess that in an hour we will have a much clearer picture. If Democrats pick up 3 of these 6 seats, they will at least temporarily take control of the Wisconsin state Senate. Two Democratic Senators face recalls later in August.



UPDATE: It looks very likely that Republicans have kept control of the Wisconsin state Senate. One race remains to be decided with Republicans clearly retaining 3 seats and the Dems picking up 2 seats (the Dems were able to ensure that the recalls against the Democrats don't occur until later in August). The Dems have to pick up 3 seats now and lose neither of the two recalls against Democrats. The last remaining seat is the 8th District where with 84 percent of the vote counted Republican Alberta Darling has a 5,019 vote lead over the Democrat Sandra Pasch. With only about 12,300 votes left to be counted, the Democrat has to pick up slightly over 70 percent of the remaining vote to win. That seems like a tough task for the Democrats, especially since the remaining votes come from fairly strong Republican areas.



One of the two seats that the Democrats picked up was won by about 2 percent.



The August 16th recall election for the two Democrat seats have two strong looking Republicans running (Kim Simac and Jonathan Steitz).

One Wisconsin Democrat State Senator Faces Recall Vote Today

One Wisconsin Democrat State Senator Faces Recall Vote Today

Democrats WisconsinRecalls

Today's vote could go a long ways towards determining whether Republicans are able to keep control of the Wisconsin state Senate. Democrats who controlled the state Government Accountability Board were able to delay the vote on the three Democrats facing recalls. See this article here:

The fate of one of the Wisconsin lawmakers who fled the state this year in an effort to block cuts to collective bargaining rights for public workers will be decided by voters on Tuesday.

This summer, Wisconsin is overflowing with recall elections involving nine state senators from both parties, but the balloting in the Green Bay area on Tuesday will be a first definitive outcome in the series of elections that many see as a gauge of public sentiment about the agenda of Republicans who took control of the state this year. At stake in a dizzying, unprecedented series of recall elections is dominance in the Senate, where the 19-14 Republican majority could shift if Democrats gain three seats.

Still, the outcome of the recall election on Tuesday of Dave Hansen, a Senate Democrat, may offer few larger signs of what is ahead for either party in this sharply divided state. Some observers say the particulars of this race make Mr. Hansen's removal less likely than it might otherwise be. Mr. Hansen's opponent, David VanderLeest, a businessman who led the political movement to recall him in the first place, has raised less money, has faced legal problems and has drawn only tepid support from some Republican leaders who tried to get a different candidate on the ballot.

In most of the races, the essential fight is simple.

Three Democrats, including Mr. Hansen, are the subjects of recalls because all of the Senate's Democrats slipped away from Madison earlier this year and fled to Illinois to prevent a vote from taking place on collective bargaining cuts Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, was pushing. (Ultimately, the maneuver failed; Republicans managed to call a vote without the Democrats, and passed the law, but some voters said the Democrats had failed to stay in town and do their jobs.)

Six Republicans are the subjects of recalls for the opposite reason. They voted for the cuts to collective bargaining -- along with a series of budget cuts and other measures that Mr. Walker has called for.

On Tuesday, voters will also cast ballots in primary elections for the Senate seats of the other two Democrats who face recall, but the final elections will not be held until Aug. 16. Final elections will decide the Republican senators' futures on Aug. 9. . . .

So what does the Prosser vote mean for the Wisconsin State Senate Recalls in Wisconsin

So what does the Prosser vote mean for the Wisconsin State Senate Recalls in Wisconsin

WisconsinRecalls

The important point for these recalls is that a politician in Wisconsin has to be in office of at least a year before he can be recalled. Given that 2006 and 2008 were strong Democratic years in Wisconsin, the Republicans facing a recall were politicians who had survived those tough elections. The reverse is true for the Democrats facing recalls. They got in on previously strong Democratic years. I wonder if Democrats are going to regret these recall votes. Personally, I hope that the Democrats get recall petitions filed against all the Republicans that they want to go after because on election night they will have a longer string of defeats and it will hurt their message even if they win one or two races.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this discussion here:

. . . . As close as the race was statewide, most of the targeted Republican senators - including Hopper - represent counties where the majority voted for Justice David Prosser, favored by conservatives, over Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg, favored by liberals. Many saw the Supreme Court race as a proxy referendum over Walker's budget proposals; the presumption was that voting would be similar in the recall races if they come to pass. . . .

But Scott Dillman, one of the coordinators of the Hopper recall effort, said that despite Prosser's victories in Winnebago and Fond du Lac counties (with 52% and 61% of the vote, respectively, according to Associated Press figures), Hopper has his own problems that make him vulnerable to an electoral defeat.

One would be the anger of many of the prison guards in his district, hundreds of whom volunteered to help collect recall signatures, over the limitations on union bargaining pushed by Republicans. . . .

Hopper issued a statement:

"I will continue to work hard on behalf of taxpayers and middle class families who understand the status quo in Madison is keeping Wisconsin from creating the jobs that make our families and communities stronger. . . . 

"I'm confident the voters of the 18th Senate District will support our goal to make Wisconsin a place in which businesses and middle class families can grow and prosper together." . . .

At least one other recall campaign - the one against Sen. Robert Wirch, a Democrat from Pleasant Prairie - is on the verge of filing signatures, its chairman, Dan Hunt, has said.

For the record, Prosser got 47% of the vote in Kenosha County, which makes up most of Wirch's district, according to AP figures from election night.

Sen. Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) continues to appear the most vulnerable to recall among the Republican senators - all three of the main counties in his district went convincingly for Kloppenburg. Signatures to recall him were filed with the state April 1.

Still vulnerable on the Democratic side: Sen. Jim Holperin of Conover - all but one of the 11 counties in his district went for Prosser. Kim Simac, the Eagle River businesswoman and tea party activist who's running the recall campaign, said, "That should be troubling for Sen. Holperin."

She said her effort to gather 15,690 signatures to recall Holperin is "looking good," but admitted, "it's not over the mark yet." The deadline is April 23.

The two counties that make up most of the district of Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls) returned margins for Prosser of just over 50%. Democrats have targeted her district with more spending than in any other district.

Republicans Robert Cowles of Green Bay and Luther Olsen of Ripon saw most of their counties go for Prosser in margins from the mid-50s to more than 60% of the votes.

Democrat Dave Hansen of Green Bay saw 57% voting for Prosser in Oconto County and 55% in Brown County. Recall organizer David Vander Leest said Thursday that the campaign is close to having enough signatures to deliver to Madison.

Republicans Glenn Grothman of West Bend and Mary Lazich of New Berlin, and Democrats Fred Risser of Madison, Spencer Coggs and Lena Taylor of Milwaukee, and Mark Miller of Monona all seem safe from a possible recall defeat. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point) seems relatively safe, with Prosser gaining more than 40% of the vote in her main counties. Plus, Scott Noble, who's been collecting signatures in Lassa's district, said his effort is not going as fast as he expected. . . .

UPDATE: On Sunday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this:

Last week, Democrats filed their first petition to try to recall a GOP senator who supported Gov. Scott Walker's law, which eliminated collective bargaining for most public employees.
Sen. Dan Kapanke of La Crosse represents a Democratic-leaning district in western Wisconsin. Two other Republican senators and three Democrats also face probable recall elections. . . .
On the Democratic side, Sen. Jim Holperin of Conover looks the most vulnerable. Holperin survived a previous recall election in 1990, when he was in the state Assembly.
Collective bargaining "is a divisive issue, and it did not come up in my campaign in 2008 and did not come up in any previous campaign," said Holperin, one of 14 Democrats who fled the state for three weeks to delay a vote on Walker's bill. "If that turns out to be the issue ... then I don't know what could happen."
Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party, acknowledged that Holperin is in a competitive district, but said he expects him to survive any recall. . . .