It has been 85 days since I posted a diary on the Democratic election successes nationwide on August 9th including the Wisconsin recall. Many felt disappointment that the Democrats fell one recall victory short of taking majority control of the State Senate. I posted the fact that one pro-labor Republican State Senator Schultz would side with the Democrats to form a majority of the thinking in the upper Wisconsin Chamber. Thanks to David Nir's post today on recall elections and his referral to a great recall site I stumbled across this bit of news supporting my contention of nearly three months ago excerpted from the Milwaukee Journal by way of The Recall Elections Blog entitled:
Wisconsin: Key Republican Senator opposes accelerating redistricting to avoid recalls
- An effort to change state law that would make it tougher to recall Republican state senators faltered Monday, as one GOP senator said he wouldn't go along with it and the chamber's top leader said the measure was not on a fast track.
Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) said he would vote against the plan, leaving Republicans at least one vote short of the majority needed to pass the measure.
The bill by Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) would put into effect new districts for senators next week, instead of November 2012, as current law requires.
The new districts - drawn by Republicans who control both houses of the Legislature - favor the GOP. Republicans approved them this summer but stipulated that they not go into effect for election purposes until next fall.
The article continued:
Because of their one-vote margin in the Senate, Republicans would need all of their members to vote for Lazich's bill. But Schultz said Monday he wouldn't go along with it.
He noted he had taken flak from both sides because he voted against the collective bargaining changes but voted for a state budget that made deep cuts to schools and local governments. He could face a recall attempt from the left or the right, he said.
So there you go, by simply closing the Republican State Senate majority to a single seat, the recall movement succeeded in reigning in the over reaching Wisconsin Republicans. A great example of what appeared to some to be an effort that disappointingly barely fell short ending up paying dividends in the long run.