Final certified Wisconsin recall petitions
Earlier this evening, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board certified the recall petitions against three members of the Wisconsin 14: Robert Wirch, Dave Hansen, and Jim Holperin. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin challenged the validity of these petitions, but in the end were only able to disqualify 230 of the signatures.
The recall elections against the six Republicans are now set to take place on July 12, with the elections against the three Democrats on July 19. If there are primary elections, as seems likely in both cases, then the primaries will be on the above dates and the general elections will take place on August 9 and August 16, respectively.
The "primaries" against Democrats involve fake candidates backed by Republicans, while on the GOP side the primaries appear very real. We will know within just a few days how many primary elections will actually take place, and then the field will finally be set.
As the signature certification phase of the recall campaigns draws to a close, let's take a look at the final numbers of certified recall petition signatures in the nine campaigns (on the right). They show a distinct Democratic enthusiasm advantage. In their six recall drives, Democrats gathered a mean of 22,804 signatures, 32% more than the mean 17,311 signatures on the Republican side. Further, Democrats did this in less time, pulling in an average of 549 signatures per day per district, compared to the Republican average of 311.That's a gaping Democratic advantage, maintained across twice as many districts, and accomplished with volunteers instead of paid canvassers.
If Republicans are going to hold onto the state Senate in Wisconsin, they will have to do it with unlimited corporate ads. Dems own the grassroots game.
