Late addendum: I prepared this for publication over the weekend, but it's hard to figure out when I'll be available to do it so I'm going to publish it now. Thanks, Kossacks for all the support and the many donations to our recalls.
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The recall elections for 6 Republican State Senators is going to be held on Tuesday. We need to win 3 of these (plus hold on to the 2 recalled Democratic State Senators whose elections are the following Tuesday, August 16) to change the State Senate to a Democratic majority.
There were 8 Republican State Senators eligible for recall and we were able to gather more than enough to recall 6 of them. We missed, by narrow margins, recalls on Glenn (You're Slobs) Grothman and Mary Lazich.
What most of you don't know is the hidden reality behind those recalls. We've had a little secret.
It's not so much a secret as it is something that we don't talk about because it reminds us of how hard this really has been. We didn't want to acknowledge it to ourselves, either, because it's really a bummer.
You see each one of the recalled State Senators was elected or re-elected in 2008. That was the year that even the most unlikely races throughout the country were won by Democrats. Obama had such wide support that Democrats won heavily even in state and local races and even in previously Republican districts. Each of these State Senators survived the 2008 Democratic landslide.
That's our unspoken secret. It's not that their districts are Republican in nature, but that even in a Democratic landslide they don't change. Getting not only enough, but getting massive numbers of signatures to recall the 6 of them was a huge win.
Whatever happens on Tuesday (and I'm hoping we get all 6), we've already won:
We woke up Wisconsin!
Independents and occassional voters stayed home in 2010 (I talked to hundreds during that election) disappointed with the failure of national Democrats to make strong changes to the terrible problems they face. They were also lulled into a virtual coma by friendly Republican ads from Scott Walker, Ron Johnson and others that they were just regular folks interested in getting good jobs for people in our state. The friendly, jobs jobs jobs ads were contrasted by the incredibly ugly non-stop attack ads against Tom Barrett and Russ Feingold that couldn't be matched because of the massive spending by the monied interests.
Wisconsinites were horrified after the inaguration to see the real agenda of the jobs jobs jobs candidates. We translated that horror into action in Madison and gave people not only a venue and opportunity to demonstrate their outrage, but gave them a mission to boot these people from office. They came by the tens and hundreds of thousands. They signed recall petitions. They became active. Unions, community groups, farmers, teachers, nurses, homemakers all came together to fight the extremism.
Our Assembly and State Senate Democrats stood united and strong to oppose the Walker agenda!
Our national Democrats should learn a lesson from this.
We successfully recalled 6 of 8 eligible Republican State Senators in districts that voted Republican even in an incredibly strong Democratic landslide year.
We overcame their manipulation of the recall elections by winning each and every recall primary with the real Democrat.
These recall elections should have happened last month, but the Republicans put up fake Democrats to force a primary. We won each of them. They postponed the election and forced candidates to spend much more to prevail in the fake primaries and made volunteers to work weeks longer, but they lost the fake primaries big time.
We have Republicans running scared!
The efforts within each district by all the people canvassing and phone banking and hanging around corners with signs have brought these elections so close that RW interests have bought non-stop attack ads on every media outlet that they can.
Estimates that millions of dollars have poured into Wisconsin for media buys and other Republican support aren't wrong. I see the ads every time I get near a television and it's not just on the local stations. They're heavily buying ad time on the cable networks, too. Massive numbers of scary attack ads with the "concerned voice" and "creepy music" that seem to add credibility to the lies about Democrat Sandy Pasch supporting child predators and "illegal aliens" blanket the airwaves. So far I've seen at least 8 different ads run by friendly sounding organizations like Americans for Prosperity (the Koch Brothers prosperity - not yours), American Crossroads (I see you Karl Rove), along with concerned "family" organizations. I chuckle with my fellow phone bankers that soon we'll see a new "grassroots" front group: Wisconsinites for Cheese, Beer, Brats, and Frozen Custard fronting an ad saying Sandy Pasch is a Satan Loving anti-cheese and sausage alcholol prohibitionist who wants to take away your frozen custard, too.
WE ARE STILL HERE!
OMG, I sound like Morpheus in the Matrix movie.
For us, this started in the middle of February. During his phone call with the Fake Koch Brother, Walker predicted that we would get used to the new Wisconsin and would go away. We haven't. The throngs in Madison are just as active as ever. We're just in the local districts now.
Everywhere Governor Walker goes he is met by protestors. His poll numbers are so awful that front groups are now running pro-Walker ads with a friendly looking woman sitting at a kitchen table talking about how nice Wisconsin is now with a "balanced budget". Wait until they see schools in September trying to survive with the nearly billion dollars in cuts.
The most recent example of Walker apprearance protests here. It starts about 30 seconds into the video and theres more at the end of the video where the reporter says that the protestors were the largest group in the entire crowd attending the opening ceremonies (nice contrast with Walkers talking point that it was just a very tiny group by comparing the number of protestors with the size of the entire crowd attending the State Fair).
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In any case, the hidden reality is out to tell you how hard this really has been. The final push goes on this weekend through the election. I hope we get all 6, but the reality is, we've already won.
If you have some spare cash, please donate via Act Blue which goes to the candidates or the umbrella group We Are Wisconsin to help them with their ad buys (the ones featured in Daily Kos front page articles like this one).
Following the recall elections, we'll get a short rest (except for the ongoing Scott Walker event and Capitol protests) until organizing begins for the recall of Scott Walker in January. This will be easier than the previous recalls since it will include the largest Democratic areas (Milwaukee and Madison) and all Wisconsites will be able to sign the petitions.
Update: I'm back from my activities now. Sorry to have to leave within an hour of posting, but, you know, things to do, election Tuesday, busy busy (weekend will be more busy). I'm off to savor the comments all of you left.