http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/10/wi_recall_marks_labor_win_election
WI Recall Marks Labor Win; Election Money Raises Question of U.S. as "Democracy or Dollar-ocracy?"
“Although Republicans hold onto a slim 17-to-16 majority after the election, Nichols says the Democrats’ pickup of two seats, coupled with the moderate stance of Republican State Sen. Dale Schultz, amounts to a new "pro-labor majority" in the Wisconsin State Senate. ‘Gov. Scott Walker took a hit last night,’ Nichols says.” –Amy Goodman
Democracy Now: August 10, 2011
AMY GOODMAN:
For more, we go to Madison, Wisconsin, where we’re joined by John Nichols, a Wisconsin native who writes for The Nation magazine, has been covering the political developments in Madison for many months right now.
Welcome, John. Talk about the significance of these recall elections. The State Senate of Wisconsin remains Republican.
JOHN NICHOLS: Well, Amy, thanks for having me on, and I’m so glad we’re together, because we can burrow into these results a little more thoroughly than much of the national media will. They’re missing the real story of what happened yesterday in
But here’s the really important backstory on this. When the State Senate was wrestling with these issues back in February and March, there was one Republican state senator, a fellow named Dale Schultz from out in rural southwestern
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, the Senate is now 17-to-16 Republican. Could a state senator switch parties?
JOHN NICHOLS: Yes. Absolutely he could switch parties. But I’m not predicting that will happen.
And so, what I’m telling you is, too often the national media and so much of our media in this country covers politics as a simple Democrat-versus-Republican fight. And let me be clear to you, there are a lot of disappointed progressives in Wisconsin, labor folks, who would have loved to have taken control, full control, of the State Senate for the Democrats last night. But what I’m saying is that as these issues play out over the coming months, my sense is it will be a different politics in the state legislature because of that much closer margin.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s talk about Alberta Darling’s race, which caused many people to be up very late. Talk about the area, the history of the voting, just going back earlier this year, the significance of what took place there, and how she held onto her seat.
JOHN NICHOLS: Well, last night, Amy, there were a lot of people pulling their hair out at about 11:00, 11:30 at night, Central time, because Alberta Darling’s race—she’s the Joint Finance Committee co-chair, the Governor’s key point person on budget issues in the Senate. She was being challenged by a very progressive nurse named Sandy Pasch. And that race was extremely close. But Sandy Pasch was ahead, and everybody was waiting for the last votes to come in from
The frustration with that is that in April, when we had a Supreme Court election here in
AMY GOODMAN: And so, David Prosser kept his judgeship.
JOHN NICHOLS: —that has raised a lot of concern. Yeah. There’s been—and this pattern didn’t start with David Prosser, either. There have been legislative races in that county, there have been local races in that county, where the county clerk has not delivered the vote in anything akin to a timely manner and has actually had severe screw-ups, to the extent that the conservative Republican county board there has condemned her and told her to stop doing many of the things she’s been doing. So we’ve got a very controversial local election official, and it’s almost beyond comprehension that this incredible battle, where you had all this fighting for the last five, six months, came down to this one county, and once again we had what was clearly a frustrating and messy, at the very least, if we’re very generous, messy count in this county.
AMY GOODMAN: John Nichols, Congress Member Tammy Baldwin of
JOHN NICHOLS: Yes. In fact, she—Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, back in April, wrote a very detailed letter to the U.S. Department of Justice saying that, in her view, the counting in Waukesha County was such a mess, and there were so many controversial and unexplainable developments there—votes being found two days after elections that were just enough to put a candidate outside of the recount margin, things of that nature, election results that actually had to be reversed because the count was so screwed up—that she asked the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation. And these investigations are not uncommon. The Department of Justice has a team of election fraud experts, who are very, very good at going in and looking at problems in areas around the country. The Obama administration and the Department of Justice has not chosen to open that investigation. And I have to be honest with you, I think there are a lot of Wisconsinites that are quite frustrated by that fact, because there is a sense that something is amiss in
AMY GOODMAN: John Nichols, I wanted to ask you about what these recall elections mean for Governor Scott Walker. Could he face his own recall election next year? Last week, Governor Walker was booed off the stage at the opening ceremonies of the Wisconsin State Fair. Protesters chanted, "Recall Walker!"
JOHN NICHOLS: Yes. Look, there’s no question that there’s an immense amount of energy for—
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s take a listen to what happened there.
JOHN NICHOLS: Oh, I’m sorry.
GOV. SCOTT WALKER: On behalf of the entire state of
CROWD: Recall
AMY GOODMAN: "Recall
JOHN NICHOLS: Sure. Amy, I think we have to look at the results from last night and recognize that these races last night took place in some of the most Republican districts in the state, and Democrats still picked up two seats, held their own, very close margins, in a number of the other districts. Additionally, we’re going to have two recall elections next week where Democratic senators are going to face challenges. If the two Democrats win next week, and you combine them with the results from this week, there are going to be an awfully lot of folks in Wisconsin who say, look, you know, even in rural areas, you saw significant votes against this governor’s agenda. If you combine those rural areas with heavily Democratic areas, like
It’s an incredibly tough task. To do a recall of a governor in this state would require something in the range of 750,000, 800,000, maybe even a million signatures to be gathered. That’s an incredible number. But I have to tell you, Amy—I’ve covered politics for a long time—the grassroots energy in
AMY GOODMAN: John Nichols, we just have a minute to go, and I want to talk about the national implications of what has just taken place in
JOHN NICHOLS: Yes. This could end up being about a $40 million competition for six rather small state legislative districts. That’s absolutely unprecedented at the national level. And I think we have to say this was the first Citizens United election, obviously referencing that Supreme Court decision that allowed corporations and very wealthy people to basically do whatever they want in politics. So much money flowed into
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we will leave it there. John Nichols, thanks so much for being with us, writes for The Nation magazine, maintains the blog "The Beat" at TheNation.com.
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