The WI-Gov recall race between Republican Scott Walker and Democrat Tom Barrett isn't the only recall election in Wisconsin on June 5th. There's also a recall race for Lieutenant Governor between Republican Rebecca Kleefisch and Democrat Mahlon Mitchell.
Additionally, four Republican members of the Wisconsin State Senate are also facing recall elections. One of these races is in State Senate District 13, where State Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Democratic wedding photographer Lori Compas are facing each other in a recall election. Fitzgerald, given the heavy Republican tilt of his district, was not targeted by the Wisconsin Democratic organization, so Compas decided to gather recall signatures with the aid of a few volunteers and managed to get more than enough signatures to force a recall election against Fitzgerald. When no Democrat stepped up to the plate to run against Fitzgerald, Compas decided to run against Fitzgerald herself. Compas has proven herself to be a formidable campaigner despite very limited resources, defeating a Fake Democrat with 72% of the vote in the May 8 recall primary, and has forced Fitzgerald onto the campaign trail, where he made sexist remarks suggesting that Compas's husband is organizing the recall movement against him and the Compas couldn't possibly organize a recall effort against him.
Can Fitzgerald save face? Will Compas prove to be a strong debater? Those questions are about to be answered.
I will provide text updates every couple of minutes or so throughout the debate.
Well, the debate's over, but here's a link to the recording of the debate
Link to Lori Compas's ActBlue page, where you can donate to the Compas campaign.
5:25 PM PT: APOLOGIES FOR BEING LATE: Just woke up from an early evening nap a couple of minutes ago, and both Fitz and Compas are much more formidable debaters that I thought they would be.
5:29 PM PT: Additionally, the moderator appears to be a true moderator of a debate, asking hardball questions to both Fitz and Compas
5:35 PM PT: Compas criticizes tax breaks for big business.
5:37 PM PT: Fitz sees NC and TX as economic models for Wisconsin.
5:40 PM PT: Compas calls Fitz out for doubling down on Act 10, calling it "part of the divide and conquer strategy." Fitz rails against public-sector unions.
5:42 PM PT: Compas accuses Fitz of "stealing" from public-sector workers. Heckler in the audience causes brief disturbance.
5:43 PM PT: Fitz claims that 96% of bills that Gov. Walker has signed into law were "bipartisan".
5:44 PM PT: Fitz rails against recall elections, suggesting that they're a waste of taxpayer money.
5:45 PM PT: Compas goes after Fitz on redistricting, calling Fitz out on those "secrecy pledges" that were highly controversial in the Wisconsin redistricting process.
5:46 PM PT: Compas calls for bipartisanship, saying that she wants to shake State Sen. Dale Schultz's hand
5:48 PM PT: Fitz defends the illegal conference meeting he convened to ram Act 10 through the Legislature. You know, the meeting where Peter Barca called him out for violating the Open Meetings Law.
5:50 PM PT: Fitz defends the secret redistricting process, and Compas mentioned testimony from the court case regarding the Act 10 conference committee.
5:51 PM PT: Fitz and Compas go at it over the redistricting process, and the crowd gets a bit overexcited.
5:51 PM PT: Compas giving closing remarks.
5:54 PM PT: Compas gives a speech that will probably be better than the keynote address at the DNC in Charlotte.
5:54 PM PT: Fitz now making closing remarks.
5:57 PM PT: Well, that's all, folks, again, I apologize for missing the first 25 minutes of this debate. I'll call this debate a tie; Fitz and Compas both performed much better than I thought they would. "Lori! Lori! Lori!" chants were heard that nearly drowned out the moderator's sign-off.